


For Heart and Home

by RikuKingdomHearts3



Category: Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Siblings, Angst, Disney Movies, Fluff, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Magic, Orphans, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Love, various disney characters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-27
Updated: 2020-09-01
Packaged: 2021-03-04 06:07:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 33,005
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24948925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RikuKingdomHearts3/pseuds/RikuKingdomHearts3
Summary: Vanitas, Sora, and Xion are orphaned siblings. They only have each other so they stay very closely to one another. Not wanting to be separated from each other, they do what ever they can to stay together. Eventually they decide to run away, in order to find the perfect home for all of them. They go off on a grand adventure for new home, but it may be a bit more than they expected.
Kudos: 18





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> While I work on updating all my stories, I realize I still have many to cross post from my Fanfiction.net account. 
> 
> This time we got a friendly cute fluffy story that started in May 2018 (so if older chapters seem different if you've read my newer stuff it's all cause 2 year old writing etc)
> 
> An AU where Vanitas is the big brother of Sora and Xion and they just wanna find a good home. Cuteness ensues!

In a small orphanage in the town of Destiny Islands, there were three little orphan siblings. The oldest was an eight year old boy named Vanitas, and his younger siblings were five year old fraternal twins Sora and Xion.

The three of them had been living in the orphanage for over three years now. Over those three years Vanitas watched over and protected his little brother and sister. None of them ever wanted to be separated from one another...which made things difficult if someone only wanted to try and adopt one of them. Ever since they were left by their parents, Vanitas made a promise to Sora and Xion that he would always be there for them as their big brother, and always be there to protect them.

They stuck together in whatever they did, never once doing something without the others. But things started to grow harder over the time they were at the orphanage. Vanitas, being the oldest, started to have worries about being separated from Sora and Xion. He always overheard the orphanage workers talking. They would talk about adults who wanted to possibly adopt him or his siblings. He didn't want that to happen. He wouldn't let that happen. Vanitas would do whatever he could to always be with his siblings. He had promised to always be there for them and he didn't want to break that promise. Little did he know though of the adventure that awaited them.

In the playroom section of the orphanage, Xion was sitting at one of the little tables. She wore a little dark blue dress that ended just above her knees. A medium sized moogle plush sat on top of the table just in front of her as she drew on some paper. She happily hummed to herself as she doodled. In the next second the moogle was snatched away out of her line of sight.

Xion turned to see one of the orphan boys, around her age, standing next to her. "Hey! Give him back!"

"No. You always play with this thing. You gotta share it," the boy responded in a taunting tone.

"But it's mine!" Xion pouted.

"No it isn't."

"Yes it is! Now give him back," Xion said as she tried to reach for her moogle plush, but the boy stepped back and stuck out his tongue.

"Nah," The boy said as he stepped back again, but he bumped into someone. The boy looked up to see an older boy wearing a red tank top and grey shorts. It was none other than Xion's older brother Vanitas, who was glaring down at him. The boy jumped away. "Ah! Um… Hi Vanitas?"

Vanitas looked down at the boy as he crossed his arms. "What do you think you are doing with my sister's moogle doll?"

"Umm… Nothing!" The boy responded quickly shaking his head.

"Then give it back to her," Vanitas responded casually, while still keeping his intimidating demeanor.

"Yes!" The boy said as he turned back to Xion, holding out the moogle plush. "Sorry…"

Xion reached out and grabbed the plush and held it tightly in her arms. She smiled happily and she hugged it. The boy then ran to a different area of the playroom.

Once he was gone Vanitas sat down next to Xion and smiled at her. "Well I don't think he will bother you anymore."

Xion's smile grew even larger as she threw her arms around Vanitas, "Thanks Vani!"

Vanitas smiled again as he patted Xion's head gently. "Of course. So whatcha drawing? Vanitas asked as he looked over at the papers on the table that Xion had been drawing on.

"I was drawing a kitty, then some flowers, and then us," Xion said as she pointed to each of her drawings.

"You drew us?" Vanitas asked as he looked at the last drawing Xion had done. The most recent one had three clumsily drawn people. Vanitas could tell though that it was supposed to be Sora, Xion, and him. It had that cute 5-year-old style to it that made it look so much better.

"Uh-huh. See?" Xion said as she held up the picture to show Vanitas. "There's you, me and Sora." Xion pointed to each of them as she said their names.

"That's great," Vanitas said as he patted Xion's head again.

"But… I wanna ask," Xion said as she placed the paper back down. She looked at her drawing before looking back at Vanitas, her eyes wavering slightly. "What did mommy and daddy look like?"

Vanitas's smile faded away as he tensed up. He was a little hesitant to answer. Sora and Xion were only two years old when their parents had left them, so they wouldn't be able to remember them. But Vanitas was five when they left. He did remember them. He could not remember a whole lot, but he did have some memories of them. Vanitas never talked about their parents ever with his siblings as he didn't want them to worry or feel sad. "Why do you want to know?"

Xion looked at her drawing again, tracing her fingers over it, "Should I draw them? They are family…"

Vanitas placed one of his hands over Xion's. He averted his eyes as he slowly shook his head, "No they aren't. They left us. They aren't our family anymore. The only family you have is me and Sora."

"Oh… okay," Xion said with a sigh. A second later she perked back up "Oh, can you at least tell me what mommy looked like? Was she pretty?"

Vanitas bit the inside of his cheek. Xion sure was in a mood for questions. Questions that Vanitas really _didn't_ want to talk about or answer. But he knew Xion wouldn't stop asking him until she got an answer that made her happy. "She was very pretty. Almost as pretty as you," Vanitas said as he ruffled Xion's hair, causing her to giggle. "Now how about we go find Sora?" Vanitas quickly added. "I bet he is still napping. We should go find him and show him all your drawings you did."

Xion nodded as she jumped to her feet. "Okay!" She gathered up her drawings and moogle plush, holding them in one hand.

Vanitas sighed with relief as he stood up and took hold of Xion's other hand. They walked out of the playroom and down the hallway. They walked down until they almost reached the end of the hall. They turned to the right and entered into a large room with several bunk beds in it. It was the boys bedroom. On one of the beds in the room slept Sora, who wore a white t-shirt with blue trim and red shorts. He was sleeping on his side and his head had slid off the pillow and onto the bed.

Xion ran up to the bed and shook Sora's shoulder, "Sora. Sora wake up."

Sora moaned as he rolled onto his back, still not waking up. Xion pouted, "Sora. Wake up!" She pushed Sora more, but he still would not wake.

"He won't wake up," Xion said as she looked up to Vanitas.

"Well how do you think we should try to wake him?" Vanitas asked with a smile. "Should we tickle him like last time?"

Xion shook her head, "No…" She looked at Sora as she thought. "Oh! I know!"

Xion placed her drawings and moogle plush down on the nearby nightstand before climbing up onto the bed. Vanitas just stood there, curious to see how Xion would try to wake Sora today. Xion kneeled over Sora before shouting happily, "Sora! Wake up now!" She then flopped down onto Sora.

Sora's big blue eyes shot open as he gasped. His eyes then fixed on Xion, "Ah Xion! Why did you do that?"

Xion laughed, "You were sleeping and you wouldn't wake up."

"Okay. Now get off me," Sora said as he tried to push Xion off him, but she continued to lay on top of him.

"No. You'll fall back asleep if I do." Xion replied.

Sora turned his head towards Vanitas, "Vani help. Get her off me."

While crossing his arms Vanitas chuckled and shook his head, "Nope."

"Come on..."

"Hmm…" Vanitas hummed as he had a thoughtful look on his face, "Actually maybe I'll help." Vanitas stood over the bed before he flopped down on top of both Sora and Xion.

"Vani!" Xion laughed as she tried to push him away.

"That's not helping!" Sora shouted through laughter.

Vanitas chuckled, "I never said I was helping you." He then wrapped his arms around Sora and Xion and held them tightly. "Now you guys will never get up."

Both Sora and Xion laughed as they pushed at Vanitas's face, trying to get him off them, but he continued to hold onto them.

"Ahem." A voice spoke stopped the children from their play. They all turned to look to see one of the orphanage workers standing in the doorway. It was the kindest, sweetest worker at the orphanage; Aerith. "I'm sorry to interupt your fun, but I will be needing Vanitas for a little while."

"What do you need me for?" Vanitas asked as he and his siblings sat up on the bed.

"Just please, come with me. It's important," Aerith responded.

Vanitas gave a long cold stare at Aerith before heavily exhaling through his nose. As much as he didn't want to see what Aerith needed him for, he knew that he would have to go anyways. " _Might as well just get whatever it is over with…"_ He thought to himself as he hopped off the bed. He looked back at Xion and Sora, "You guys continue having fun, I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Okay!" Sora and Xion shouted in unison.

Vanitas walked over to Aerith and followed her out of the room, "So what do you need me for?" Vanitas asked as they walked down the hallway.

"Well," Aerith started slowly before kneeling down in front of Vanitas. "There is a very nice couple here who wants to meet with you."

Vanitas's whole body tensed up as he stepped back. Now it all made sense why she needed him. How had he not realized that was the reason? Gritting his teeth he looked up at Aerith with dead serious eyes, "I don't want to."

Aerith sighed, "Please Vanitas, don't be difficult with this. They are very nice people and they came all this way to meet you."

"I said I don't want to. I don't want to meet them," Vanitas replied as he faced away. He wanted to walk away. He didn't want to deal with this.

Before he had even had a chance to walk away though, Aerith turned Vanitas around and grabbed onto his wrists. Her grip was firm yet gentle. "I know how you feel about talking with adults, but please just come and talk to them."

"If you know how I feel why are you making me talk to them? Let go of me!" Vanitas said as he tried to pull away, but Aerith kept her grip.

"Vanitas...please you have to do this. You can't keep avoiding this. Please just come and talk to them." Aerith persuaded in her kind-hearted voice.

Vanitas continued to try to pull away, but he was unable to. Lowering his head he gave up. He knew there was no point in trying to get away. Aerith wasn't one to give up on subjects like this. "Fine…"

Aerith gave a small smile as she stood up and took hold of one of Vanitas's hands, "Come on then, let's go." With his head lowered he nodded and they continued to walk down the hallway.

They walked down the hall until they came to a door that opened to a walkway. The walkway led over to a small building. Once they entered the building they walked down another hallway before turning left onto another. This hallway had a series of doors on each side. Soon they stopped in front of one door and Aerith opened it, letting Vanitas walk inside. They were now in a small small room that had a table that took up most of the space. Vanitas was very familiar with this room. He had been there several times before. It was the room for orphaned children to talk with adults who may want to adopt then. Sitting at the other end of the table was a young man and woman. Vanitas didn't really care to pay attention to what they looked like though.

Vanitas walked over to the open chair across from the couple and sat down, slumping down into it. Aerith walked over and leaned over, getting closer to eye level with Vanitas. "Say hello Vanitas."

While he continued to slump in the chair he looked up to see the couple smiling at him. "Hello…"

"Hi Vanitas," the woman said. "It's nice to meet you. Aerith has told us all about you."

"She has?" Vanitas asked. He wasn't actually curious. He was more tempted to roll his eyes in annoyance, but he held back on that. He had talked with adults enough times to get how it worked. But he still asked anyways, knowing it was the nice thing to do.

"Yes, she has told us how you are really sweet and caring," the woman said.

"Especially with your younger siblings," the man added in.

"So you know I have siblings…" Vanitas said, not really asking it, but more stating it.

"Yes Aerith has told us how you are a very good big brother to them," the woman replied.

"And do you plan to also adopt them?" Vanitas asked, sitting up straighter in the chair.

"What?" the man asked, looking a little confused. He looked over to the woman who had the same confused look on her face.

"Vanitas," Aerith said in a quick, strict tone. She knew where Vanitas was going to try and go with this.

Vanitas knew this too. But he chose to ignore the warning tone in Aerith's voice and continued, "You talk about how I am good to my siblings, but you don't plan to adopt them do you?"

"We...only are looking to adopt one child," the woman stated.

"That's how everyone is. No nobody actually cares that Sora and Xion need me and I need them. Unless you are going to also adopt Sora and Xion, you can't adopt me!" Vanitas shouted before jumping off of the chair and ran towards the exit of the room.

"Vanitas!" Aerith shouted as she made an attempt to grab him, but he just was too quick. She turned back toward the couple, both who had surprised looks on their faces. Aerith sighed as she lowered her head, "I am terribly sorry for Vanitas's outburst. As I mentioned before… he can be… a bit stubborn. Please excuse me." Aerith then turned and headed out of the room, running down the hall to catch up with Vanitas.

Vanitas had almost ran all the way back to the back to the main building. He was running as fast as he could and he didn't care. He was so tired of meeting with all those adults. They didn't understand. They didn't care. Vanitas knew that none of them cared that he promised Sora and Xion that he would protect them. No adult ever understood.

Just as Vanitas entered into the building he was grabbed by Aerith, her grip much firmer than before. Aerith kneeled down and turned Vanitas towards her again. Though he was now facing Aerith, he refused to look up at her. "Vanitas, look at me." The tone in her voice was much more serious than before. He knew that Aerith was upset with him now.

"No," Vanitas replied as he stared down at the floor.

"Please Vanitas. Look up at me. Now." Aerith's voice grew sharp and strict, a very rare tone for Aerith to have. She rarely ever was upset, and even when she was upset she never yelled or raised her voice very loud. But she still could be intimidating. "Vanitas...I am waiting. Please look at me."

Slowly Vanitas tilted his head up and looked Aerith in the eyes, "What?" Vanitas asked, as if he had done nothing wrong, though he knew what he had done.

"You need to go back and apologize to that nice couple. That was unacceptable behavior."

"No. I don't want to. They didn't want to also adopt Sora and Xion," Vanitas replied.

"You can't…" Aerith started before she sighed. "You can't keep acting like this. You know you will eventually get adopted."

"I don't want to get adopted!" Vanitas shouted.

"You can't stay here your whole life and not get adopted," Aerith replied calmly.

"If I had to get adopted I would want Sora and Xion to be with me. But no one wants to adopt all three of us," Vanitas muttered with a huff of air.

"It's uncommon that people come here wanting to adopt more than one child all at once. I know you love your brother and sister very much, but it isn't likely you will all get adopted by the same people."

"Then we will just wait until someone will want to!" Vanitas replied as he pouted. He was getting tired of this. All these adults are coming and only wanting to adopt just one of them. He couldn't stand to think about being without Sora and Xion, but these adults didn't seem to get that.

"Vanitas… you can't wait around for something like that. You all need nice, good homes and there are a lot of nice couples wanting to adopt. I… I wasn't going to tell you this now, but I might as well since we are on this topic," Aerith said as she sighed once more and closed her eyes.

"What? What is it?" Vanitas asked impatiently.

Aerith opened her eyes again, "This isn't confirmed yet… but… there is a couple who may be adopting Xion."

Vanitas gasped as he felt his heart drop. "What?! Why didn't you tell me this!?"

"I knew you would be upset. I was going to tell you though once I got the official confirmation from the couple."

Vanitas shook his head, his breathing started to increase. He gripped his fists tightly and he glared at Aerith "You can't! You can't do that! You can't take Xion away from me!"

"I'm not trying to-" Aerith started, but Vanitas cut her off.

"No! You still don't understand! They need me, so you can't take them away from me!"

"Who's going to take me away?" A new voice asked, entering the conversation.

Vanitas turned around to see Xion standing in the hallway, clutching her moogle plush tightly against her chest. Her eyes wide and fearful.

"No one is taking you away sweetie. There is a couple though who may want to adopt you. Remember that nice couple you talked with a few times before? They are thinking of adopting you."

"No!" Xion quickly shook her head and ran over to Vanitas, she held onto Vanitas's tank top as she buried her head against him, "Not without Vani or Sora!"

"See? You can't take her away!" Vanitas shouted at Aerith as he wrapped his arms around Xion.

Aerith sighed again, sadness running across her face. "Vanitas… please understand that I have tried. I have tried my very best to keep you three together. For the three years you have been here I made sure you guys could stay together. I've done my best, but… this can't last forever. I would love it if you could all stay together… but it doesn't always work out that way. Please know that I have tried though."

"Well you're not trying hard enough! You don't actually care at all! I hate you!" Vanitas retorted before grabbing hold of Xion's hand, "Come on Xion, let's go play." He walked away with Xion down towards the playroom, leaving a sad and hurt Aerith behind.

For the remainder of the day Vanitas refused to say anything to Aerith or any of the other orphanage workers. He would talk and play with Sora and Xion, but didn't say a word to anyone else. When it came time for dinner, Vanitas still did not say anything to Aerith when she came by to hand out their food.

"Vani.. .why aren't you talking to miss Aerith?" Sora asked before taking a bite of his food.

"Because…" Vanitas answered, not really wanting to go into detail about it.

"Is it what she said earlier?" Xion asked.

Vanitas turned his head away, "Maybe." There was still a lot going through his mind. He was still mad at Aerith for not telling him about the possible adoption with Xion, but he also didn't know what else to do. He turned back towards Sora and Xion and gave a smile, "Don't worry about it. It's nothing. Let's just eat our food."

By the time all the children were getting ready for bed, Aerith walked up to Vanitas. He didn't stop to talk to her or listen to what she was going to say. He just continued down the hall to the bedrooms.

"Vanitas?" Aerith asked. "I'm sorry."

Vanitas slowed down and looked back at Aerith, he gave a long cold stare before continuing walking again, "Sure you are…"

Once all the children were in their beds and fast asleep, Aerith made her way to the break room for the workers. Once there she prepared herself a cup of nice hot tea. Sitting down she stared at the tea, waiting for it to cool off. Leaning her arms on the table she let out a sigh.

"Hard day today?" A voice asked. Aerith looked up to see Tifa, one of the other workers, standing at the other end of the table.

Aerith sighed slightly. "Just a little."

"What's up?" Tifa said as she sat down next to Aerith.

"It's Vanitas… It's getting more difficult to get him to talk to the adults coming to meet him."

"Are you sure you don't want me to talk to him?" Tifa asked.

Aerith shook her head before taking a sip of her tea, "No, it's all right. It's just hard to see him act this way…"

"We need to do something about that, we can't let him act like that any further, otherwise no one will want to adopt him," Tifa said rather bluntly.

"I know...I'm looking into things. But I don't want them to be separated… but I also don't want them staying here their whole lives. I want them to find nice, happy homes, but I haven't found anyone who wants to adopt them all together. Vanitas still doesn't really understand that." Aerith replied. "Do you remember when they were first brought here?"

"Oh boy do I remember," Tifa said as she leaned back in her chair. "Vanitas wouldn't stop shouting and crying for nearly a week. It was a nightmare."

"Yeah. But I stayed right by him and tried to help him in whatever way I could," Aerith said as she closes her eyes, recalling memories that felt so long ago. "I would talk to him every night until he fell asleep. I let him help me take care of Sora and Xion, though he claimed that I was the one helping him." Aerith chuckled at the fond memory. "But I think… he changed once he learned that he could get adopted without Sora and Xion."

Tifa placed a hand on Aerith's back, "Hey, I know we will be able to figure out something for them. Maybe we just need a little more time."

"I hope so."

Vanitas was fast asleep in his bed, until he felt someone shaking his arm. He slowly opened his eyes to see Xion standing in front of the bed. She was holding her moogle plush as always. Vanitas blinked a few times to adjust his eyesight, making sure that he was in fact seeing her. "Xion? What's up?"

"Can I sleep with you tonight?"

Vanitas nodded, "Sure." He adjusted himself back a bit on his bed and Xion crawled up onto it. She cuddled up against Vanitas and he wrapped his arms around her.

"I'm too scared to sleep tonight by myself…" Xion whispered.

"Why's that?" Vanitas asked.

"You… You won't let them take me away will you?" Xion asked, her eyes were wide and close to tearful.

Vanitas held Xion tighter, "Of course I won't let anyone take you away from me."

"Thanks Vani," Xion smiled.

Vanitas then felt someone poke him in his back, he looked behind and saw that Sora was standing on the other side of the bed. "Can I sleep with you guys too?"

Vanitas nodded and Sora climbed onto the bed. Both Sora and Xion snuggled up against Vanitas while he laid on his back and wrapped an arm around each of them. "Remember the promise I made to you guys? The really really big one?" Vanitas asked as he looked back and forth between Sora and Xion.

"Yeah. You said you would always be there for us," Sora responded.

"You said you would always watch over us 'cause you're our big brother," Xion added.

"That's right. That means I will do whatever I can to keep us together forever. I'm your big brother and means I gotta look out for you two. I'll find a way to keep us together, don't you worry. I'll find a way."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll probably be uploading the chapters ever few days or so until it is caught up. Until them I hope you enjoy!


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning Vanitas slowly awoke to find Sora and Xion still sleeping next to him. They still were cuddled up against him and fast asleep. Vanitas smiled as he gently rubbed their heads. It was times like these where he just wanted to stay cuddled up next to his siblings and not move all. He just wanted to hold them in his arms and stay in this peaceful moment. But of course it couldn't last forever. Soon one of the workers came in to announce breakfast.

Knowing they had to get out of bed, Vanitas gently shook Sora and Xion. "Hey guys. Wake up. It's time for breakfast."

Sora and Xion slowly opened their eyes and yawned in union.

"Good morning Vani," Xion said while Sora just yawned again and tried to fall back asleep.

"Oh no Sora, you aren't falling back asleep on us," Vanitas said as he shook Sora again.

"I don't wanna get up…" Sora grumbled.

"We gotta get up though! It's breakfast!" Xion shouted as she gave Sora a shove.

"Don't make us push you off the bed Sora," Vanitas chuckled as he slowly started to push Sora towards the edge of the bed.

Sora quickly sat up and jumped off the bed "Okay! I'm up! Let's go eat!"

The three siblings quickly went and got dressed for the day and then headed to get their morning food. Again as they ate Vanitas would not look at, or talk to Aerith at all. He still couldn't believe what she had said yesterday. Some couple wanted to adopt Xion? And only Xion? And to make things worse Aerith didn't even tell him for who knows how long! How long had she kept it a secret from him!? He knew that he couldn't trust any of the adults. They never would understand how he felt. They just kept things from him and lied about everything.

" _There has to be something I can do…"_ Vanitas thought to himself later in the day. He was sitting off in the corner of the room as he watched Sora and Xion play with the other children. " _I am not going to let them separate us. I can't let them separate us. But...what can I do?"_

"Come on Vani. Come and play with us some more," Sora said as he pulled on Vanitas's shirt.

"Yeah Vani. Play with us again!" Xion chimed in.

Vanitas was snapped out of his thoughts and his eyes fell onto his siblings smiling faces. He pushed back these thoughts on what to do for a later time. Right now he knew he needed to be with his siblings. They were all he had left and all that mattered to him.

"Alright. What do you wanna play?" Vanitas asked.

"Tea party!" Xion shouted.

"Sword fight!" Sora said as he held up a foam toy sword.

"Well both of those sound fun, well what do you guys wanna do first?" Vanitas asked as he smiled at his siblings.

"I wanna have a tea party first! Tea party!" Xion said as she bounced up and down.

"But I wanna play sword fight," Sora pouted.

"Kupo wants to play tea party too!" Xion argued as she held up her moogle doll.

"I don't wanna play tea party though…"

"Hmm.." Vanitas hummed thoughtfully as he stood up, "How about this then. You guys are having a nice little tea party, when the big monster comes and you have to fight them off with your swords?"

Before Sora or Xion could respond Vanitas grabbed hold of them and tackled them down to the ground. "I've got you two now! And now you will never escape!"

Both Sora and Xion let out loud laughs of joy. They laughed and giggled as they tried to break free of Vanitas's grip.

"Vani...let go," Xion said as she giggled as she pushed at Vanitas's face.

"Nope. I am not just any monster. I am the tickle monster!" Vanitas shouted as he began to tickle both Sora and Xion.

The two little siblings burst out in laughter. Their efforts to try to escape from their big brother ceased as they could do nothing, but laugh and laugh more. The three of them laughed as they all laid on the floor. They laughed and laughed for what felt like forever. After that though, they did end up playing with swords and having a tea party, but they still couldn't stop laughing from before.

Vanitas was glad about that. Not only did he want to have fun with his siblings, but he also didn't want to let them worry at all. He didn't want them to be worried about getting separated. He was the one who had to worry if anything. He was their big brother and that meant he had to be the one to look out for them. The image of Xion from yesterday popped back in his head. The terrified look on her face when she heard she might get adopted. He didn't want that to happen. There had to be something he could do. Anything. But of course he couldn't let them know he was worrying. He wanted to keep them as happy as he could.

That night after everyone was dressed and in bed, Vanitas stared up at the ceiling. He couldn't fall asleep. There were still far too many thoughts going on in his head. As he lay there in thought, a small idea came to his mind.

" _What if… we ran away…"_ His thoughts asked himself. " _Where would we go though? Would the workers come and find us?"_

Vanitas sighed. He had no idea how they would even manage something like that. Getting up from his bed he walked over to the window and stared out at the sky. The sun had just begun to set, and the dark night sky was fading in.

That was when Vanitas caught sight of a star. One lone star out in the middle of the sky.

"The evening star…" Vanitas muttered. He closed his eyes as he contemplated for a moment. He wasn't big on believing in fairy tales or magic...but seeing that lone star...it gave him a small idea. He didn't know if it would work, but part of him felt like he had to try.

Vanitas opened his eyes back up and looked back at the star. Clasping his hands together he spoke in a quiet voice, as he didn't want to wake anyone else up.

"Star light, Star bright. First star I see tonight. I wish I may, I wish I might. Have the wish I want tonight." Vanitas took in a deep breath before he continued. "Please… I don't want to be separated from Sora and Xion. They are all I have left. I don't want us to stay here for much longer and have that happen. I am tired of this orphanage. So… I wish… I wish for a way for us to get away from here, but for us to stick together."

Vanitas sighed a little, feeling like it was pointless to even try such a thing. But then it almost looked like the star glowed a little brighter. Vanitas gasped as he saw a glow of light appear on the window sill right in front of him. He couldn't believe his eyes. Was this for real? Or was he just dreaming?

When the light outside the window faded, what remained was a little 3-dimensional, blue toy-like star with a piece of paper on top of it. Vanitas carefully opened the window and picked up the star. It was just a little larger than the palm of his hand and it looked like it was made out of glass as he could see right through it, but it also felt light in his hand. Looking down at the paper, he read what it said.

_The World Traveling Star:_

_For the times when you wish to run away_

_Here are the things you need to say_

_Place everyone's hand on the star_

_And then wish to go very far_

Vanitas stared with wide eyes at the star in his hand. This couldn't be real… could it? Vanitas quickly pinched himself, if in the case he had actually fallen asleep and this was all a dream. Vanitas flinched, but nothing happened. This was real. He had the answer to his problem right here in his hand. Never before had he felt this happy. A large smile ran across his face as quickly, but quietly, changed back into his everyday clothes. He also made sure to grab his black jacket and threw it on over his red tank top.

Vanitas then ran over to Sora's bed "Sora. Hey Sora," Vanitas whispered as he shook Sora. "Wake up Sora. Now."

"Mhn...V...Vani?" Sora yawned, only being half awake. "What….is it?"

"Get dressed now and grab anything you wanna take with you. We are leaving here. Tonight."

"What?... What do you mean?" Sora asked, as he sat up.

"Just trust me. Get dressed and be ready to leave, okay?"

Sora slowly nodded, "Okay…"

Vanitas then tiptoed out of the boys room and made his way down the hallway to the girls room. He slowly peaked his head in to see all the girls in there fast asleep. After locking his eyes on Xion's bed he snuck his way over there.

"Xion. Wake up."

Xion stirred slightly before opening her eyes and seeing Vanitas. "Vani? What is it? It's nighttime."

"We are going to run away tonight. You, me, and Sora. We can be together now and no one will ever try to separate us again." Vanitas explained with a smile.

Xion's eyes lit up, "Really? How you going to do that?"

"With this," Vanitas said as he held out the star for Xion to see. "It's a magical star. It's going to take us somewhere else. A place where we can be happy together."

Xion wrapped her arms around Vanitas and smiled happily. "Yay! Together forever!"

"Shh…" Vanitas hushed Xion as he pulled her back from the hug. "Now get dressed and grab anything you wanna take with you and meet me back in the boys room, oaky?"

Xion nodded, "Got it."

With that all taken care of Vanitas headed back to the boys bedroom. Sora was already dressed and ready to go. He walked over to Vanitas. "Now what?"

"First we wait for Xion. Then we are going to leave," Vanitas said as he walked back over to the window. He pushed it open all the way and looked outside. They were only on the first floor so the window was basically right above the ground.

"But where are we going?" Sora asked.

Vanitas turned around and held out the magic star, "This magical star will take us someplace else."

"Where did you get it?" Sora asked as he looked over the star.

"From wishing on a star," Vanitas reponsded.

"Wow. Really? That is so cool!" Sora said enthusiastically.

Vanitas nodded, "Yeah, it is."

"But...should we really be leaving? Won't miss Aerith and all the others miss us?"

Vanitas closed his eyes, shaking his head. "Sora, adults don't care for us. They never have. They just want to get us adopted and separate us. None of them actually care how we feel about it. They won't care if we are gone."

Sora lowered his head, "Oh...okay."

"Hey…" Vanitas said as he placed his hand on top of Sora's head, "Don't feel too down about it. We are going on a fun adventure now. Everything is going to be alright now."

Sora formed a smile across his face, "Yeah. An adventure sounds fun."

"I'm ready," A small whisper came from the other side of the room. Sora and Vanitas turned to see Xion dressed in her usual dress and her moogle plush rested in her front dress pocket, with just it's head sticking out.

"Okay then. Let's go," Vanitas said as he walked back over to the window. He first picked up Sora and helped through the window and down to the ground outside. Next it was Xion's turn, and after she was outside Vanitas exited out the window and then gently closed it once he was in the ground.

"Now where to?" Xion asked.

"We're going to head to the forest, so no one can see us. Come on," Vanitas said as he took both Sora and Xion's hands and started to walk to the forest just a few feet away from the orphanage.

As they walked Vanitas didn't once look back. He never wanted to see that orphanage again. Never again would he have to read being adopted without Sora or Xion. They were going to stay together now. Everything was going to be happy. Vanitas was determined to find a place for them to live happily. A place where they wouldn't have to deal with adults. A place where they wouldn't be separated. The perfect home was out there somewhere and Vanitas was going to find it.

They entered the forest a little before stopping. Vanitas pulled out the star from his jacket pocket. "Okay guy. Place a hand on the star, and hold my hand with the other hand." Both Sora and Xion nodded as they placed one hand on the star and grabbed Vanitas's hands with their other.

"What happens now?" Sora asked.

"I wish for us to go somewhere else. Somewhere far more fun," Vanitas said as he formed a smile across his face.

The star suddenly began to glow a light blue hue. The siblings all gasped in amazement as the light grew brighter. Soon the light surrounded them and was far too bright to see anything. They closed their eyes and smiled as they were consumed by the star's bright light.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now it is time that the adventure starts! Where will they go? Who knows, but see you all next time!


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go on now to the first Disney world the children visit. Let''s go!

The light soon faded around the three children as they found themselves in a forest, but it was a different forest than they were just last in. This forest seemed much darker and a little bit scarier.

"It… It worked," Vanitas commented as he looked around the new environment. He still couldn't believe what had just happened. Was this really happening? Were they truly somewhere else?

"But…where are we?" Xion asked as she tightened her grip on Vanitas's hand. The wind was howling through the tree, giving off an eerie sound.

"I don't know…" Vanitas said as he continued to look around.

"So the star magic worked?" Sora asked, wanting a confirmation on it.

Vanitas nodded, "Yeah I think so. This forest doesn't seem the same as the one we were just in. Let's take a look around."

Vanitas placed the star into his jacket pocket and then took hold of Sora and Xion's hands again. Vanitas slowly started to walk deeper into the forest with his siblings right by his side. They only walked a few feet when Vanitas stopped right in his tracks. "Wait a minute…"

"What is it Vani?" Xion asked.

"I just thought…Oh no. Oh no. I hope I didn't forget it..." Vanitas mumbled as he reached into both pockets of his jacket. A look of relief fell over his face as his hand reached around what felt like a thin piece of paper. "Thank goodness…"

"Vani? Are you okay?" Sora asked.

Vanitas pulled out the piece of paper from his pocket to reveal it was not paper, but a photograph. A simple photograph of Vanitas, Sora and Xion. In the photo they were standing together with Vanitas wrapping his arms around the two younger ones. They were smiling happily as a beautiful sunset was behind them. The photo had been taken only a few months ago, but Vanitas usually made sure to always have it with him. It was one of the few photos taken of him and his siblings at the orphanage. It was one of the happier moments they had.

"It's the picture of us!" Xion smiled happily.

"Of course, I wouldn't wanna go anywhere without it," Vanitas replied as he carefully placed it back into his pocket. Vanitas looked around the area again, looking for a pathway or an exit out of the forest, but all he saw was dark, dense forestry all around.

"Which way do we go?" Xion asked as she took hold of Vanitas's hand again.

"I… I don't know, but we will find a way out okay guys? Just don't let go of my hands, got it?" Vanitas said as the two nodded. Sora then grabbed onto Vanitas's other hand.

Their walk continued, leading them deeper into the forest. Vanitas could feel Xion and Sora practically clinging to his side. Vanitas wanted to admit that he was a little afraid too, but he knew he had to stay strong. For Xion and Sora. He had to be their stronger older brother.

"It's okay guys, it's just a forest at night," Vanias said, trying to comfort the little ones.

"But it's super dark! There could be monsters!" Sora said as he looked around, fearful that a monster may actually pop out at them.

"I don't think there are any monsters here," Vanitas answered.

'B-But what if there are?" Xion asked. "This forest is scary…"

"I'll make sure to protect you guys," Vanitas smiled, giving his siblings hope that they would be all right. They walked a little further until they could see a faint light coming from somewhere.

"There! There must be an exit to the forest that way!" Vanitas said as he started to pick up the pace.

"Vani?" Xion asked with a yawn. "I'm tired… where are we going to sleep?"

"Hmm, maybe we can find somewhere once we get out of the forest," Vanitas said. He hadn't taken into account that Sora and Xion would tire out much faster than him. He needed to find a place for them to sleep for the night and fast. He knew for sure that they couldn't just sleep in the forest.

Soon an exit from the forest was ahead of them. The three excitedly ran out of there as fast as they could and now found themselves in a valley. Just a few feet away from them though was a small looking cottage with the lights on.

"You think we can go there?" Sora asked.

"Someone is already living there, I don't think we should bother them," Vanitas answered. He also didn't want to have to face any adults anytime soon, and he knew that there were probably some in that cottage.

"Can we ask though? I'm really tired Vani…I wanna sleep..." Xion complained as she was tugging on Vanitas's jacket. He knew that she would keep this up the more sleepy she got.

Vanitas sighed, "Okay fine…let's go see."

They slowly walked up to the house. Once they had gotten within a few feet of the door they could smell something nice in the air. " _Someone must be cooking."_ Vanitas thought before he got the courage to knock on the door.

"Oh! Just a moment!" A sweet voice answered. A second later a young looking girl opened the door. She looked to only be fifteen years old with short black hair and fair skin. She wore a dress with the top half being blue and the bottom half yellow. "Oh my little children. What are you three doing out here this late at night?"

"We're on an adventure!" Sora answered cheerfully.

Vanitas frowned slightly at Sora's eagerness to answer the girl. He really didn't want to have to deal with talking with anyone. He just wanted to find a place for them to rest for the night. But then a thought came to mind...this could be the only place for a long while. He had no idea where a town was or how close it was. He was now conflicted. He didn't want to stay here talking to this girl longer than needed… but he didn't know anything about where they were. She would probably know something though.

"Oh an adventure! How fun," The girl responded happily. "But why so late? Aren't your parents going to worry?"

All three children stiffened up at the word _parents_ , none of them wanting to think of it. Vanitas took in a deep breath and looked the girl right in the eyes, "No. We don't have any. Do… do you know where the closest town is?"

The girl frowned, "Oh you poor things. The kingdom is quite a walk from here though, and I would hate to have you all walk in the dark." The girl suddenly clasped her hands together. "I know! Why don't you all stay here? That way you don't have to travel in the dark."

Vanitas hesitated, he did not want to have to stay here any longer. But she was now offering for them to stay here? Just out of the blue like that? She was far more friendly than Vanitas had originally thought. But now… he didn't know what else to do. He did know that Xion and Sora would not want to walk anymore in the dark, and here was an offer to stay somewhere for the night. "Are… Are you sure that's okay?" Vanitas asked, just trying to be at least a little polite.

"For sure," the girl smiled again. "I am sure the dwarves won't mind at all."

"Dwarves?" Xion asked, tilting her head.

"My friends who own this little cottage. I come and visit them often. But they are off for a few days so I am watching the cottage for them. They should be back in a day or two though. Now please, come in," the girl said as she stepped aside.

Vanitas felt Sora and Xion let go of his hands and run inside. He saw them looking around in awe at every little thing in the cottage. He chuckled slightly to himself, wondering where their sleepiness had gone.

"My name is Snow White by the way," the girl said as she closed the door after Vanitas entered.

"That's a pretty name!" Xion said as she walked up to Snow White. "I'm Xion, that's Sora, and that is our big brother Vani!"

Snow White laughed sweetly, "What cute names! It's so nice to meet you."

Xion looked up and smiled, "Your dress is pretty too!"

"Thank you Xion," Snow White smiled happily.

Vanitas rolled his eyes a little, " _This Snow White...Ugh...she is too cheerful…"_

Vanitas sat down on one of the chairs in the room as he began to think what they would do next. " _We can't just stay here...this isn't what I want for Sora and Xion. We will just be here the night and that is it."_

"You're a princess?!" He heard Xion shout with excitement, snapping him back into reality.

"Yes I am," Snow White replied.

Xion came running over to Vanitas and tugged on his jacket. Her eyes wide and shining with excitement. "Vani! Vani! Snow White is a princess! A real princess!"

Vanitas chuckled at Xion's enthusiasm. "I heard. Weren't you just sleepy a moment ago?"

"No," Xion lied. But Vanitas could see the tiredness in her eyes.

"I'm not sleepy either," Sora also lied, though right after he said that, he yawned.

"If you are all tired, there are beds you can use up the stairs. And tomorrow I can make a delicious breakfast for everyone!" Snow White said as she clapped her hands together.

"Thank you!" Sora and Xion said in unison with big, kind smiles across their faces. Though Vanitas only stared, and did not say a word. With a slow nod of his head he stood up and headed up the staircase with Sora and Xion.

They walked up and entered a room filled with several beds. Xion and Sora ran over to two of them, climbing up onto them and getting under the covers. Vanitas went and sat down at one of the beds, looking around at the room they were now in. It was a small room, but it held seven small beds in it. He didn't really look or care too much about anything else though as sleep slowly overcame him and he fell asleep right as his head touched the pillow.

The following morning Vanitas heard the sound of birds tweeting. Vanitas slowly opened his eyes and blinked a few times as the light streamed in through the window. Vanitas slowly sat up as he looked around the room, he didn't see Sora or Xion sleeping anywhere. He was about to call out for them when he heard giggling coming from the first floor.

Vanitas quickly jumped out of the bed and ran down the stairs. Once down there he saw that Sora and Xion were in the kitchen with Snow White. They were sitting on the kitchen counter helping her make breakfast. The stranger part to Vanitas was that there also seemed to be some woodland creatures helping to make the food.

Vanitas cleared his throat, causing the little siblings to turn around and smile. They were covered in what looked like flour. "Vani!" They both shouted.

"We're making pancakes!" Xion exclaimed.

"Mine is going to have lots of blueberries!" Sora shouted.

Vanitas couldn't help but laugh at their enthusiasm. He walked a little closer and took in a deep breath of air. The pancakes did smell rather nice. Snow White then turned around and smiled sweetly.

"Good morning sleepyhead, did you have a good night's rest?"

"Hmm yeah I guess so…." Vanitas muttered.

"You still seem pretty sleepy. Well hopefully the breakfast will wake you up. You can all sit at the table and it will be ready in a moment."

Sora and Xion jumped down from the counter, and ran over to Vanitas. They pulled on his arms and dragged him over to the table. "Come on and sit down Vani!" They both shouted excitedly.

Vanitas laughed again, "Why are you guys so jumpy this morning?"

"Cause we get to make pancakes!" Sora cheered.

"And we got to help!" Xion added. "It was fun!"

"Well it sure looks like it," Vanitas said, trying to sound interested in it, though pancake making was far from _fun_ to him. He was glad though to see Sora and Xion seemingly having a good time.

Moments later Snow White placed the pancakes down on the plates in front of them. Snow White then placed a cup filled with blueberries in front of Sora's plate. Sora immediately took the cup and dumped the blueberries all over his pancakes. Xion on the other hand just had plain pancakes and already had started eating them.

"Is there anything you would like on your pancakes Vanitas?" Snow White asked.

Vanitas shook his head, "No thank you." He then slowly started to eat the pancakes. He actually smiled a little as the taste of them was far better than he expected.

Snow White then sat down across from them at the table and began to eat her own plate of pancakes. Sora and Xion had almost finished up all their pancakes.

"What will we do now Vani?" Xion asked before taking one last bite of her food.

"Um.. I don't know…" Vanitas answered. He really did have no idea. Vanitas let out a little sigh as he tried to think things over. He really wished he had planned this out better. He had no idea where they should go or what they should do after this. He was still glad they were able to get away from the orphanage, but taking care of Sora and Xion on his own was a bigger challenge than he originally expected.

"If you all want to head to the kingdom today I can have some of my forest friends guide you there," Snow White added in. "There is a lot to explore there."

"That sounds fun!" Sora said.

"Can we do that Vani? Please?" Xion asked.

"Alright… Let's do that," Vanitas said, though he still wasn't all too sure about it.

Once everyone had finished up their food, Snow White gathered some of her forest friends. It turned out to be two deer and a bunny, which made Sora and Xion all the more delighted. The two were chatting with Snow White a little more, thanking her and saying whatever else they wanted to say while Vanitas stood off to the side. He still didn't want to talk to Snow White at all. But then Xion ran over to Vanitas and pulled on his arm.

"You gotta say 'thank you' to Snow White! She was nice to us, so you gotta thank her!"

Vanitas stiffened up a little at the comment, he still was not particularly fond of thanking others, especially adults. Though Snow White only seemed to be in her mid-teens, she was still older than the rest of the, practically making her an adult. At least that is how Vanitas saw it. Begrudgingly Vanitas made his way over to Snow White, he slowly looked up and saw her smiling face.

"Thank…. Thank you for letting us stay here…" Vanits muttered.

Snow White chuckled. "Oh you're welcome Vanitas. Now I want all of you to be safe and have a good journey to the kingdom. It was very nice to meet all of you."

"It was nice to meet you too Snow White!" Xion said as she gave Snow White a hug.

Snow White smiled again as she gently patted Xion's head. Sora then joined in on the hug. Vanitas let out a huff of air at the sight. He wasn't too fond of seeing his little brother and sister being so friendly with someone they just met the other night, no matter how nice she is. He just did not like trusting others to help them. He wanted to be the only one to help and protect Sora and Xion. That was his job and he knew that was what he had to do.

Vanitas then felt someone patting his head. He looked up to see Snow White smiling at him again. "You remind me of one of my friends. Always acting so grumpy. It's more fun to smile than frown."

Vanitas scrunched up his nose and turned away. "Whatever…" He then walked back over to Sora and Xion. He just wanted to leave. "Come on guys… let's go already."

"Okay!" Sora and Xion chimed in unison. "Bye Snow White!" They shouted as they waved over to Snow White. In return Snow White once again smiled and waved cheerfully.

Vanitas didn't bother looking back as they began to follow Snow White's forest friends into the forest.

"What are we going to do when we get to the kingdom?" Sora asked as they walked.

"I wanna see the shop with the pretty dresses!" Xion suggested. "Snow White told me there is a store with pretty dresses."

"We don't have any money Xion," Vanitas said.

"Oh…" Xion frowned for a second before perking up again. "But I still wanna look!"

"Maybe…" Vanitas muttered as he went into thought. He started to think over anything they could do or what they should do. He placed his hands into his jacket pocket, feeling the picture in one, and the star in the other. "Hey I know. What if we went to someplace even cooler?"

"Someplace cooler?" Sora asked.

"But I like this place. It's pretty," Xion stated.

"Yeah, but I bet we could find an even better place to have fun. Better than just a kingdom," Vanitas said as he smiled. While this world seemed peaceful and nice, Vanitas just didn't think that it was right for him and his siblings. Plus with this magical little star they had, he wanted to see what else was out there. There had to be somewhere else that was much more fun.

"Like what?" Xion asked.

Vanitas thought for a moment as they continued to walk. "I don't know, but I know we could find a place that is far more fun than here."

Xion frowned a little, "But I wanted to see the kingdom."

Vanitas gently patted her head, "Well I bet we could find a place with an even better kingdom."

Xion scrunched up her nose a little, "We haven't even seen this kingdom! How do you know there is a better one if you haven't seen this one?"

Vanitas bit his lip. She had him there. "Okay… We can go check out this kingdom, then how about we go someplace else?"

"Hmm… Okay!" Xion said after only thinking about it for a moment.

"Yeah! I like that! Let's do that!" Sora added in.

After walking a little further they soon got to the edge of the kingdom. Xion and Sora thanked the forest creatures for guiding them there safely. Once that was over Xion and Sora ran forward into the kingdom, with Vanitas running to keep up.

They explored around the kingdom for a little while, looking at all there was to see. They did even manage to go into the dress Xion like she wanted. Time stretched on and soon it was past noon, and the siblings were beginning to get hungry.

"Vani… I'm hungry…" Sora complained as he placed his hands over his stomach.

"Me too…" Xion added.

"I know, so am I," Vanitas replied as he looked around for a place where they could get food. They didn't have any money, so it made things a bit more difficult. And Vanitas knew that he couldn't just steal food, that wouldn't lead to anything good. But he had to figure out something.

"Should we go back to Snow White? She could make us yummy food again," Xion said.

"No," Vanitas immediately stated. "How about… we go to a new place and look for food there?"

"Okay!" Sora and Xion agreed together.

The three ran back outside of the kingdom, back into the edge of the forest. Once they were there, and out of sight of any people, Vanitas pulled out the star. "Okay guy, remember what we did last time."

Sora and Xion nodded as they both placed a hand on the star and grabbed one of Vanitas's hand's with their other. With a deep breath Vanitas repeated the same thing he had said last night. As soon as he spoke the words, the star glowed and the light enveloped them again, taking them off to a new place to explore.


	4. Chapter 4

The light faded around the siblings as they found them to be somewhere new yet again. They were near another forest, but this time they found themselves to be in a clearing surrounded by forest. Vanitas looked over the area, but didn't see any sign of people or civilization.

"Now where are we?" Xion asked.

"I don't know… But I guess we gotta find out," Vanitas replied.

"And find some food!" Sora added in cheerfully.

Vanitas nodded back. "Yeah. Now let's go."

The three began their walk in one direction into the forest. Vanitas hopped that the way they were walking would lead to some town or something. Or at least some place where they would be able to get food. He really didn't want to have to end up stealing from some place. But the further they walked, the more he thought about it.

" _It wouldn't be so bad to steal some food… right? We all are hungry...Maybe it wouldn't be so bad… It would be for a good cause after all. Steal a little food so we won't starve."_

"Vani! Look!" Xion shouted, snapping Vanitas from his thoughts.

Vanitas turned to look where Xion had pointed and much to his surprise there were a few larger trees. But they weren't just any old trees, these trees had apples on it. Vanitas sighed with relief as all three of them ran over to the group of trees. There were older apples that had fallen on the ground, but there were still many fresh apples still on the tree branches.

"Can we eat these?" Sora asked as he looked up at the tree.

Vanitas looked around for a moment. He checked to see if there was a house or someone nearby that could possibly own the tree. But they were still in a forest. There were just trees and bushes everywhere. Vanitas saw this as a far better way of getting food than trying to steal anything.

"Okay, you guys stay close. Play around or something just don't go too far. I'll climb the trees and grab us some apples," Vanitas said as he approached one of the trees.

Sora and Xion cheered happily as they began to run around the area. They began to chase each other as they had begun a game of tag. Vanitas smiled at his siblings enthusiasm before he started to climb up one of the apple trees. He carefully reached up and grabbed the next branch to pull himself up higher. Soon he was a good few feet off the ground, and climbing higher up in the tree. He was told once by one of the orphanage caretakers that the best apples were always near the top of the tree.

In less than a few minutes he had gotten to the top of the tree and he then started to look for nice ripe apples. Vanitas started to pull off the really nice looking apples and placed them into his coat pockets. Once he picked as many as he could he slowly made his way down the tree. As soon as his feet were a few inches above the ground he jumped to the ground.

"Xion! Sora! I got the apples!" Vanitas called as he tried to find where they had run off too. Seconds later he heard them running back towards him, cheering happily.

"Yay! You got apples!" Xion shouted.

"Let's eat!"

Vanitas chuckled as he handed each of them an apple. "Now remember to be careful when eating it. We don't have anything to cut them up into slices so we gotta eat them large."

Sora and Xion nodded as they bite into their apples. Soon all three of them were sitting around and happily munching on their apples. Vanitas sighed with a smile as he sat back against the apple tree. Everything felt so peaceful right now. They were on their own and they were doing just fine.

" _We don't need any adult to tell us what to do or anything. I can take care of Xion and Sora just fine on my own. Though… We do need to find a place to stay for the night. We can't sleep outside… I gotta try to find something…"_ Vanitas thought to himself.

"Vani?" Xion asked as she finished eating her apple. She crawled over to Vanitas and snuggled up next to him.

"Yeah Xion?" Vanitas asked.

"What do we do now?"

"I don't know yet. I'm still thinking it through."

"Are we going to explore more of the forest?" Sora asked as he sat next to Vanitas on his other side.

"Maybe. And maybe we'll find someplace cool we could stay," Vanitas replied.

"Oh! That sounds fun! Maybe we can meet another princess!" Xion chimed in with excited eyes.

Sora shook his head. "I don't wanna meet another princess. I wanna meet a knight or something. Oh! Maybe a pirate!"

"Why would you wanna meet a pirate?" Xion asked as she looked over at Sora.

"Cause it would be so cool!" Sora beamed with wide eyes. "They know how to sword fight real good!"

"But they can be big and scary! I wouldn't wanna meet one," Xion argued.

"Well if we meet any pirates, I'll be sure to protect you from them," Vanitas replied as he patted Xion on the head.

Xion giggled. "Thanks Vani."

"But Vani…" Sora whined. "Wouldn't you wanna meet some pirates? Wouldn't it be so cool?"

"Of course it would! But I would fight off any pirates that tried to hurt you guys," Vanitas said as he pulled Sora and Xion in closer. He held them in a tight hug for a moment before he let go.

Xion suddenly let out a long yawn. Vanitas realized that it was probably late afternoon and that was when Sora and Xion usually would take their naps. Vanitas hummed to himself as he thought over what they could do. He still had no idea where they were or how close they were to other people. But he saw how calm and peaceful this forest was. He didn't see any problem with resting behind a tree for a while.

"If you guys wanna take a nap here, go ahead. I'll watch over you guys," Vanitas said with a comforting tone.

Sora this time was the one to let out the yawn. "Okay...thank you Vani…" Sora laid down, resting his head against Vanitas.

"Yeah… thanks…" Xion said as she also rested against Vanitas.

"You're welcome," Vanitas replied as he gently rubbed the heads of both Sora and Xion.

Soon the twins were fast asleep as Vanitas watched over them. But as he watched, he slowly started to feel sleepy himself. He wrapped his arms around Sora and Xion as his mind slowly drifted off into sleep.

* * *

"What are little children like you doing out here all by yourself?" a voice asked, coming out of nowhere.

Vanitas opened his eyes as he blinded a few times. Standing a few feet in front of him was a young looking woman. She didn't look too old, but she looked at least a few years older than Snow White. Her hair was a golden yellow and her eyes were a light shade of purple. She seemed to be looking at Vanita, Sora and Xion with slight confusion, but she held a kind smile.

Vanitas tensed up as he stared at the person in front of him. "Why do you want to know?"

"I was just wondering. I never have seen others in these woods before, especially young children. I know I am not to speak to strangers, but you are just little children."

"Who are you?" Xion said as she sat back up. She yawned as she stretched out her arms, having just woken from her nap.

"And why are you in the forest?" Sora added as he also sat up.

The girl smiled as he replied. "My name's Rose. And I was out today to gather some fruits and berries."

"Oh I like that name!" Xion said as she jumped to her feet. "My name is Xion. This is my brother Sora and that is our big brother Vanitas."

Vanitas could tell Xion was excited about meeting this new person. But Vanitas felt differently about it. This was another person who they didn't know and who would not understand them. Vanitas did not want to be invited to another person's house. He didn't want any people to try and help them. He could do it himself. He was the one who could take care of Sora and Xion.

"Well it is nice to meet all of you," Rose responded. "But what are you all doing way out here?"

It looked as if Sora and Xion were about to tell Rose everything, so Vanitas decided to speak first. "We were going for a walk… But I think we got lost. Do you know how to get out of this forest?"

"Oh, well I have never left this place. I know there is a kingdom nearby, but of course I have never been to it," Rose replied.

"Can you tell us how to get there though?" Vanitas asked.

Rose paused to think about it for a moment. "Hm I'm not sure. I am sorry that I can't be of much help. Oh! But maybe Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather could help you out."

"Who?" Sora asked.

"The three who have taken care of me since I was young. I'm sure they wouldn't mind helping you three out," Rose said.

Vanitas quickly shook his head. That was the last thing he wanted. He did not want any adults helping him out at all. He knew he had to think of something quickly, he didn't want to stay there any longer.

"That's okay. I think I remember the way. Come on guys let's go," Vanitas said as he stood up, taking the hands of Sora and Xion.

"Are you sure Vani? Rose said that-" Xion started to say, but Vanitas cut her off.

"I got this. I know where we are going." Vanitas looked over at Rose. He pursed his lips as he thought of what he had to say next, though he really didn't want to. "Thank you… for trying to help. But I got this." Vanitas started to walk with Sora and Xion trailing right next to him.

Rose seemed to look at them with confusion for a moment. "Oh, well… goodbye then."

Xion turned around as they were walking away. "Bye Rose! Have a nice day!"

Vanitas tuned out Rose's response. He just wanted to get away. It annoyed him that it seemed everywhere they went they encountered someone who wanted to help them.

" _Can't we just be left on our own for at least a day?"_ Vanitas wondered to himself. Though as they continued to walk through the forest he had thoughts again on what his plan was. " _I still don't know where we are going to stay for tonight...What am I going to do…"_

"Vani?" Sora asked. "Do you really know where to go?"

Vanitas sighed as he shrugged. "Maybe… I know I will find a way. Don't you guys worry though."

Vanitas started to think over what he could do again. He knew he had to find some place they could stay. There had to be somewhere. An old house or somethat. Some place where no one lived. Vanitas kept hoping that he would soon find a place they could live in… even though he knew it was a very big hope.

They walked for a little bit, going deeper into the forest. Soon it was hard to see much light as there were many trees covering up over the pathway. Sora and Xion were looking around, pointing out all the things that they saw while Vanitas continued to think over things.

Soon enough, Vanitas was snapped out of his thoughts when Xion shouted something. "Lookie! It's a bunny!" Xion pointed to a few feet in front of them. There was in fact a little grey bunny sitting in the shade of a tree. Vanitas opened his mouth to reply but Xion had let go of his hand and ran towards the bunny.

"It's so cute!" Xion shouted as she got closer. But as she approached the bunny seemed to notice the oncoming child and started to hope away. "Wait Mr Bunny! Come back!"

"Xion!" Vanitas called out. "Don't run off like that!"

But Xion didn't hear him, she just kept running after the little bunny. Vanitas sighed as he looked over at Sora, who had thankfully stayed.

"Let's go get her before she gets lost."

Sora nodded. "Right!"

The two boys took off running in the direction Xion had gone. They weren't too far behind her when she suddenly darted right, farther into the forest. She was still chasing the bunny and did not once stop to look back. Vanitas started to worry a little. He didn't want to track Xion… he didn't want to lose her.

"Xion! Wait up for us!" Vanitas called out to Xion again, but it seemed to all be not worth it as Xion continued running further away.

Vanitas ran a little faster, but kept checking back to make sure Sora was close in eyesight. Since he was a few years older, he could easily run faster than both of them, but he also didn't want to leave Sora behind. But suddenly Vanitas heard Xion cry out. His heart was racing now as he picked up pace and ran to find Xion. It was getting harder to see though as the sun was getting lower in the sky. Soon it would be too dark to see anything.

"Xion! Where are you?!" Vanitas called out.

He waited a moment and listened. He didn't hear her call back, but he did hear something. He could hear her crying. Sora ran up besides Vanitas as he was trying to figure out where Xion was.

"Sora, look around and be careful. We gotta find Xion!"

"Yeah! Got it!" Sora agreed as he began to look around the area.

Vanitas walked a little further through the trees and soon he came to a stop. In front of him was a slightly steep hill. And at the bottom of the hill was Xion!

"Sora!" Vanitas called out. "I found Xion! Over here!"

Sora came quickly running over to Vanitas. Once he was there, they both slowly made their way down the hill and ran over to Xion. Vanitas immediately wrapped his arms around Xion and pulled her close. He began to look over her to see if she was hurt, and the only thing he saw was that her knees were scrapped.

"Are you hurt anywhere else?" Vanitas asked as he continued to hold onto Xion.

Xion didn't answer him though, she just kept crying. Vanitas frowned as he started to rock Xion back and forth. He tried thinking of what to do now. He didn't have any bandages with him or anything. He hadn't thought that something like this could happen. The only thing he knew he could do was try to help Xion feel better as best as he could.

"Hey Xion… it's okay. I'm here now. You're okay," Vanitas said, trying to think of as many comforting things as he could.

Xion continued to try a little more as she now clung onto Vanitas's jacket. Vanitas gently patted Xion's head as he took in several deep breaths. He had been so scared that he almost lost Xion. He had no idea what he would ever do if he did lose her. He held her a little tighter as those fears crept in for a moment.

"Please don't run off again Xion," Vanitas whispered to her. "I know the bunny was cute, but we almost lost you. I was so worried."

Xion sniffled as her tears finally stopped. "I'm… I'm sorry Vani…"

"It's all right. As long as you are safe with me and Sora, everything is good," Vanitas said as he sighed with relief.

"Vani…" Sora said as he got a little closer to Vanitas. "I thought I heard something from over there…" Sora pointed over to some trees several feet away from them.

Everyone got very quiet as they listened. A moment later they could in fact hear something. It sounded like someone talking. Instinctively Vanitas wrapped one arm around Sora and pulled him in close.

The voice was disant at first, but it was slowly getting closer. "You sure you hear someone over here?"

This voice sounded much younger than the others they had encountered so far. Not only that, but it sounded like the voice of a boy. After the voice had spoken, the siblings could hear a jingle of light sounding bells.

"Right over here?" the voice seemed to be asking the bells. "Well let's see."

Seconds later a young redhead boy appeared out from behind some trees. He wore an all green outfit and even a green hat with a red feather in it. Though he had odd brown shoes of some kind. But he didn't look all that old, maybe only a couple years older than Vanitas.

"Hey you were right Tink," the boy said as he looked to his left, where it seemed a glowing light was flowing. The boy came a bit closer to the siblings. Vanitas stood up, standing right in front of Sora and Xion.

"What do you want?" Vanitas asked the boy.

"I was just around the area, and Tink said she thought she heard someone over here. And it turns out she was right. My name's Peter by the way. Peter Pan." He held out his hand in front of Vanitas.

Vanitas stared at the boy for a while, he had no idea who this kid was or what he was doing in the forest. But Vanitas decided to be nice and shake his hand back in return.

"Now aren't you going to tell me your names?" Peter asked with a laugh. Vanitas could tell that this kid seemed really friendly for sure. But at least he wasn't an adult.

"Vanitas," Vanitas answered. He then looked back at his siblings. "And that's Sora and Xion. They are my little sister and brother."

Peter nodded. "I can tell. Oh! And this is Tinkerbell."

Peter pointed to the glowing ball of light next to him. But as Vanitas looked a little more he saw it wasn't a glowing ball of light. It actually looked like a small person with wings. Vanitas could hear Xion gasp with delight.

"Is she a fairy?!" Xion asked.

Peter laughed a little and then nodded. "Yup she is."

The little fairy known as Tinkerbell flew over to Xion, who was still sitting, and landed on her knee. Xion stared with big wide eyes at Tinkerbell. Little jingles of bells came from the fairy as she looked up at Xion.

"She says hello," Peter said.

Xion gasped. "You can understand her?"

Peter nodded again. "Yup I can."

Xion smiled as she looked down at Tinkerbell. "Hi Tinkerbell! Nice to meet you."

"So what are you doing out here? You guys lost?" Peter asked.

Vanitas turned back to Peter and narrowed his eyes. "No… No we're not lost. And it's none of your business either."

Peter crossed his arms as he gave a childish smile. "Well if you guys are lost, I can help you guys out."

"You can? How?" Sora asked.

"You guys can come with me and Tink to Neverland," Peter replied.

"Neverland?" Vanitas asked as he tilted his head to the side. He still didn't trust this kid and he had no idea what he was even talking about. But Vanitas also found himself to be slightly curious about what Peter was saying. He looked just like a kid, but he seemed to just be on his own like they were.

"Yeah Neverland. A place where kids never grow up. And no adults can tell us what to do," Peter explained.

Now that caught Vanitas's attention for sure. "No adults?"

"Well, there are adults like the indians or pirates, but they don't tell us what to do," Peter said.

Sora gasped. "Pirates?!"

Vanitas ignored Sora's excitement for the moment and asked another question. "We?" Vanitas asked. "So there are other kids there then?"

Peter nodded. "Yup. My group of Lost Boys."

"So this Neverland… You never grow up there?" Vanitas asked. He was still a bit suspicious about the whole thing. But he decided to keep asking about it. He did want to learn more he realized. If there was such a place where no adults could bother them… then Vanitas felt he would want to go to this place.

"Yeah! Cause growing up is no fun. It's more fun just to be a kid," Peter explained.

"Where is Neverland then?" Vanitas asked.

"Well…" Peter paused as he looked up at the sky. It was growing darker and a few stars were starting to show. "When the stars are all out I'll show you. Shouldn't be too much longer now."

Vanitas raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Peter smiled childishly again. "It's easier to fly there when you can see where we are headed."

Now all the siblings looked over at Peter with confusion. "Fly? They all asked at once, wondering what he could possibly mean.

"Yeah fly," Peter responded casually. "When the stars are out, there are two bright ones right next to each other. Neverland is the second star to the right."

"But we fly there?" Xion asked.

"Yup, just like this," Peter said as he floated off the ground.

"Wow!" Sora shouted with excitement. "You can actually fly!"

"That's so cool!" Xion added.

They watched for a bit as Peter flew around the area. He just seemed to fly so easily, like he had always done it. Vanitas did have to admit it did see cool that this kid could fly, but that still left many questions open.

"But… we can't fly," Vanias said as he crossed his arms. He waited to see what Peter would say next. Wondering and still a bit suspicious.

"You can actually," Peter said as he landed back down on the ground. "Tink, will you help them out?"

A small bit of jingles came from Tinkerbell as she flew into the sky above the siblings. She then flew around them quickly, creating a trail of glowing yellow dust behind her. The glowing dust fell on top of all of them as they tried to figure out what it was. Vanitas brushed off a bit from his hair and into the palm of his hand. He ran his fingers over it, feeling the texture of it. It was unlike anything he had ever seen or felt before.

"So pretty," Xion commented as she looked at the dust falling onto her. "Like magical snow!"

"Now that you guys have some pixie dust, you guys can fly," Peter said. "All you gotta do is think happy thoughts. That's all there is to it."

"Okay!" Xion shouted happily as she smiled. A second later she started to float off the ground. She giggled with delight. "Look Sora! Vani! I'm flying!"

Vanitas's mouth dropped open a bit at the sight. He didn't think that it would actually work, but there was Xion, floating up in the air right in front of him. He immediately went and held onto her wrist as she was trying to fly up higher.

"Whoa Xion. Don't go floating away on us," Vanitas said as he tried to pull Xion a bit closer to the ground.

"But it's so cool! I'm flying!" Xion replied.

Vanitas chuckled. "Yes, I can see that."

"I wanna try now!" Sora shouted before he closed his eyes, and looked like he was concentrating. In the next moment he too was floating up in the air. Both Xion and Sora were now flying around Vanitas, laughing and giggling over what was happening.

"It's your turn Vani," Xion said.

"Yeah come on Vani. Fly like us!" Sora added.

"All right, all right," Vanitas said as he took in a deep breath. He still didn't fully think something like that was possible. But then he thought about everything that had happened so far. He had wished on a star and was given a way to travel to different worlds. That was one of the most bizzare and magical things he had ever encountered. Well it was until now. Flying by magic from a fairy… that was something else entirely.

Vanitas looked back at Peter, who was happily watching Sora and Xion flying around the area. "So… Just think happy thoughts?"

"That's all there is to it. Just think of something happy and then you'll be flying."

Vanitas closed his eyes as he thought. There wasn't much in his life that actually made him happy. The only way he ever felt happy was when he was with Sora and Xion. His siblings. That's what made him happy. He loved to spend everyday with them and see their happy, little faces. Vanitas thought through memories of the most fun times he had so far with them. When he did that, his body began to feel lighter and he felt his feet leave the ground. He quickly opened his eyes to see that he was actually flying.

"Wow…" Vanitas said as his eyes filled with amazement.

"See you guys got it," Peter said as he stepped closer to the siblings. He then looked up at the sky and the stars were starting to show. "And looks like the stars are showing enough that we can leave."

"So we are really going to Neverland?" Xion asked.

Peter nodded before he started to fly up into the air. Vanitas wanted to interject. He wanted to say that he never agreed to any of it, but then he realized that Neverland may be the place he was looking for. There would be no adults who would want to split them up. They could live together and not have to worry about any of that. Vanitas saw this could be the perfect place for them.

"Just follow me," Peter said as he flew up and out of the forest with Tinkerbell right beside him.

The three followed shortly after Peter and flew up above the treetops. There they saw the sky had grown much darker than they had thought. Stars filled the sky, making it look very beautiful.

"Right there," Peter said as he pointed out at the stars. "See the really bright one? Neverland is the one to the right."

"Let's go! Let's go! I wanna see Neverland!" Xion shouted.

"Come on then!" Peter said as he took off into the sky and started to fly towards the star.

Vanitas looked at Sora and then Xion. "Hold my hands guys. I don't want you flying off on me, okay?"

Both Sora and Xion nodded as they took hold of one of Vanitas's hands. After that they all flew higher up into the air to try to catch up with Peter. Along the way Sora and Xion giggled and talked about the fact that they were flying and how cool it was.

Vanitas was happy to see them so excited but he never had felt so happy before. " _Finally… This place can be the perfect home for us. Everything's going to be fine now. We'll stay together and everything will be great."_


	5. Chapter 5

The four of them flew in the sky, far above the ground below them. Vanitas held his siblings' hands tightly. He wanted to make sure that he didn't lose sight of them. Though he still was amazing at what was happening. They were flying. Flying up towards a star that supposedly would take them to another world.

The sky and world around them started to fade away as they approached the star. It glowed brighter as they neared and soon enough all three of the siblings closed their eyes from the light of it.

A few seconds later they opened them again and all three let out a collective gasp. They were now flying above fluffy clouds and it was no longer night time. Far down below them was no longer a forest, but a vast ocean.

"Wow! Lookie Vani! The ocean!" Xion exclaimed.

"This is so cool!" Sora added.

"Yeah, it really is," Vanitas commented. He still couldn't believe that all of this was happening. But he knew it was. All of this was real. They were really traveling to different worlds and now also flying.

Vanitas then looked ahead and saw Peter flying just a bit in front of them. Tinkerbell was also flying around, but staying close to Peter. "So Peter. Where is this Neverland place?"

Peter turned around and smiled. "It's just ahead. Over there!" Peter waved for them to follow as he flew right towards a large cloud. Much to the surprise of the siblings, he didn't fly through it, but instead landed on top of it.

Vanitas, along with Sora and Xion flew right up to him on the cloud and stopped above it. Vanitas's grip on his siblings hand's loosened a little and Xion slowly floated down to the cloud. She also was able to stand on it just like Peter. Sora and Vanitas then followed right after.

"How are we able to stand on a cloud?" Vanitas asked, curious about how all of it could have worked.

"That's just how things work in Neverland," Peter said, not truly giving an explanation. "But now, take a look. Neverland is down below us." Peter then gestured below.

Sora, Vanitas, and Xion looked down and saw a large island. Their eyes filled with amazement at the place before them. It looked large and vested with many different areas, from dense forests, to the beach. There were even large looking mountains at the opposite edge of the island. Several large rainbows seemed to stretch across the entire island in all different ways, giving it a very magical feel.

Off to the side of the island though was a large looking ship. Immediately Sora gasped. "Is that a pirate ship!?"

Peter nodded. "Yup it is. And on it is Captain Hook and his crew. But over that way," Peter pointed to a far point of the island. "That's where the indians are. And down there," Peter then pointed to an area with a small waterfall and rocks. "The mermaids are down there."

"There are mermaids here?" Xion asked, her eyes twinkling with wonder. "I wanna go see! Vani can we go see the mermaids? Please?!"

"And I wanna see the pirates!" Sora said.

"Whoa guys, one thing at a time. Let's see what Peter says first," Vanitas said as he looked to Peter.

"Well I was thinking first I could introduce you three to the Lost Boys. Then maybe I'll give you all a proper tour around Neverland.

"All right," Vanitas said with a nod. He then looked down at Sora and Xion. "That sounds good guys?"

"Yeah!" both Sora and Xion cheerfully responded.

"Okay then! Let's get going!" Peter said before flying off the cloud and down towards the island.

They all then flew down, and entered the forest. They flew past many trees and the forest around them got denser and denser. Soon though they came to a clearing with one large lone tree. It looked a bit strange as there was a large opening at the top with several pieces of wood covering what Vanitas assumed to be more holes. Without any words Peter flew up to the top of the tree and then jumped down into the hole and Tinkerbell followed right behind him.

Vanitas stared for a moment, trying to figure out where Peter had gone. Though he didn't let things worry him too much. After all they seemed to be in a magical place now. A place where they didn't grow up.

"Where he go?" Sora asked.

"I don't know. Probably down the tree? Let's go find out," Vanitas said as they all flew up to the top.

As they made their way to the top of the tree, there was in fact a hole that actually led down into the tree, and it seemed to go down deep.

"Whoa! It's like a secret hideout!" Sora exclaimed. He let go of Vanitas's hand and slid down the bark of the tree. He let out an excited scream as he slid down until he was no longer seen from above.

Xion however squeezed Vanitas's hand a little tighter. "We gotta go down there?"

Vanitas slowly nodded and gave a reassuring smile. "Yeah, but don't worry. We'll be fine."

"You sure?" Xion asked.

"Of course. Now come on," Vanitas said as he held Xion in his arms. He then descended down into the hole in the tree.

It was much deeper than Vanitas had expected, but not nearly as dark. There was light from farther down, and Vanitas could easily hear Sora's voice. It seemed that Sora was asking Peter all about the pirates that also lived in Neverland.

Vanitas then landed on the ground and looked around. He almost couldn't believe that what he was seeing was all underneath a tree. There were some hammocks and at least one bed in side and various items and toys laying all over the place. In the far corner of the room though, was a group of six young looking boys all fast asleep. Each of them though seemed to be dressed as a different animal.

"Oh good you made it," Peter commented once he saw that Vanitas and Xion arrived.

Peter then walked over towards the group of sleeping boys and stood up straight. "Lost boys!" he shouted in a loud voice. "Wake up!"

Slowly the six boys opened their eyes and let out a yawn. The one who was dressed like a rabbit looked up at Peter. "What is it Peter?"

"We have some new friends, so I want you all to be on your feet to greet them," Peter said as he crossed his arms.

Immediately all six boys jumped up to their feet and looked behind Peter. They all stared at Sora, Vanitas, and Xion. Before anyone could say anything, the six boys ran over to the siblings and surrounded them and started to bombard them with questions.

"Hi! What's your guy's name?"

"Where did you guys come from?"

"Why is your hair so spiky?"

"What's with your doll you have?"

"Do you guys like adventuring?"

Peter cleared his throat. "Lost Boys! Attention!"

All the boys stood up straight and formed a line facing Peter. They then saluted him as they waited for him to speak up again.

" _I guess Peter is like their leader or something,"_ Vanitas thought to himself.

Peter walked back and forth as he looked carefully at each of the boys. "You guys are to not go startling our new friends. They've been through a lot so let them relax a little."

"We're sorry Peter, we were just excited," the one dressed as a fox replied.

"It's all right. But now how about you all properly introduce ourselves?" Peter asked.

All the boys nodded and looked back at the siblings. The one dressed as a fox spoke up first. "I'm Slightly!"

"My name's Nibs," the one dressed as the rabbit said.

"We're the twins!" the two dressed as raccoons said in union.

Xion gasped. "You guys are twins?"

"Yeah we are!" they said, speaking again in union.

"So are Sora and me!" Xion said as she pointed over to Sora.

"Awesome!" the Twins replied.

"I'm Cubby," the one in the bear outfit said.

Slightly then pointed to the smallest of the boys, the youngest looking one dressed as a skunk. "And this is Tootles. He doesn't talk though." Tootles ended up just smiling and waving at the group.

"And now it's your turn," Nibs said.

Vanitas opened his mouth to reply, but Xion ended up speaking first. "My name is Xion and Sora is my twin. Vanitas is our older brother but we call him Vani. And he is the best older brother ever! This is my moogle plush. His name is Kupo. And we came from Destiny Islands. It's not like an island like this though."

"Yeah it isn't as exciting as this," Sora continued. "There's a nice view but no pirates. So that's why we ran away from home."

"Well that wasn't the _actual_ reason…" Vanitas tried to interject, but it seemed the younger siblings still had more to say.

"So after we ran away from home we went on this adventure to other worlds!" Sora continued.

"Yeah and we got to meet a real princess! It was really really cool! But now I wanna meet the mermaids!" Xion added.

Vanitas then placed his hands on top of Xion and Sora's heads. "All right guys. Slow down now. Don't wanna talk too much all at once. Gotta be polite okay?" Vanitas then looked at the group of Lost Boys. "Sorry if they were talking too much."

"Nah that's okay we understand," Cubby said.

Nibs nodded in agreement. "You guys are just excited."

"But wait Peter," Slightly started to say as he looked over at Peter. He then pointed over at Xion. "We've never had a girl before in the group."

"Oh that's right," Peter said, as if he had never even though about it. He walked over to Xion and squatted down to her eye level and gave a smile. "Well I guess that makes Xion the very first Lost Girl."

Xion started to bounce up and down. "Wow really?"

"I got a question about that," Vanitas started. "Why do you say that? The Lost Boys thing?"

"Because," Peter said as he stood up. "All of you were all lost at some point. But then you all came here to never grow up and just have fun!"

"Yay!" the Lost Boys all cheered together.

"So that means Vani and I are Lost Boys too?" Sora asked curiosity.

Peter nodded. "Of course! That's why I brought you guys here. To never grow up and be Lost Boys." Peter paused for a second before adding, "And Lost Girl."

Vanitas ended up smiling again. It was making him feel happy again. They had a home they could stay in now and never be separated. Though Vanitas started to wonder what it was really like living near pirates and everything else, he decided that would be figured out at another time. What mattered was that they found a place they could belong and no one was going to separate them. Vanitas would make sure that would never happen.


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of the day was still just as enjoyable as when they first arrived. After chatting among the Lost Boys, Peter had decided that he would give a more proper tour around the entire island. Sora and Xion were ecstatic to see the entire island and Vanitas couldn't help but smile at their energy. Of course he was rather excited too, but he was able to contain himself a bit better.

They first flew down to Mermaid Lagoon to see and meet the mermaids. Once they arrived there, all of them could see that there were mermaids swimming around the area, or resting on the rocks. Peter jumped down and around the rocks that were in the lagoon. He pulled out a little wooden flute-like thing from a pocket and started to play it.

All the mermaids looked up to see Peter and started to smile and wave to him. The three siblings stood up on a ledge above the lagoon as they watched Peter fly around the mermaids, continuing to play his flute. Xion bounced up and down as she looked at all of the mermaids.

"Vani! Vani! Lookie! Mermaids!" she shouted excitedly.

"Yeah I see that. I never thought they were real," Vanitas commented.

Xion gasped and then pouted. "They are real! They are right there! They are real just like fairies are and everything!"

"And pirates too," Sora added. He then looked up at his older brother. "Vani? When can we see the pirates?"

Xion looked over at Sora as she shook her head. "I don't wanna see the pirates though."

"But you got to see the mermaids, so I wanna see the pirates," Sora replied.

Vanitas watched his little siblings as they stared at one another. He knew they would probably start to argue over the subject, so he thought it would be best to get their attention. He placed a hand on top of each of their heads and ruffled their hair. The fraternal twins stopped their conversation to stare up at their brother.

"Don't worry guys, we will all get to see what we want. Right now it's Xion's turn, okay?" Vanitas said as he glanced over at Sora for a moment.

"But Vani," Xion started. "What if the pirates are scary?"

"Hey I told you before that I would protect you guys from any scary pirates," Vanitas replied.

"Oh yeah, thanks Vani!" Xion chimed happily as she went back to watching the mermaids.

Though Xion had wanted to go down and talk to the mermaids, Vanitas told her maybe it could be for another time as he didn't want her to try and stand on the rocks that were down there. But soon enough Xion was tired of just watching from far away.

"I wanna go see them now!" Xion said before she started to fly down closer to the lagoon.

"Hey wait! Xion!" Vanitas shouted as he went right after her.

Sora though shrugged as he sat down on the ground. He didn't see a need to go down and see the mermaids. That wasn't something that really interested him. But he thought it would be best to just sit and wait.

Xion carefully landed down on one of the rocks and stared at where all the mermaids were. Peter was sitting on one rock as he played his flute and all of the mermaids looked up at him dreamily. Xion then flew a little bit closer, but none of them seemed to really notice her.

"Hi mermaids!" Xion then called out.

All of the mermaids turned their heads and looked at Xion with curious and questioning eyes. Vanitas landed down next to her a second later and gently held her hand. "You gotta be careful Xion, don't just go flying away from me like that."

"Who are they?" one of them asked as they looked back at Peter.

Peter looked over and saw where they were looking. "Oh her, that's Xion. She is now the first ever Lost Girl and she came here with her two brothers. The boy is her older brother Vanitas."

The mermaids looked at Xion and then back at Peter. They eyed him carefully and then once again looked back at the little girl. The mermaids were known for loving Peter and being rather jealous and rude to anyone else who might have liked him, but they saw that this was just a little girl and that she had no clear intentions of liking Peter.

All of the mermaids smiled at one another before swimming over to the rock that Xion and Vanitas were standing on. They swam around the rock and looked up at the two. Xion smiled with glee back down at them.

"Oh isn't she cute?" one of the mermaids asked.

"So adorable," another one added.

Xion giggled happily. "Thank you mermaids. You all very pretty too!"

"Aw isn't she so nice," one commented.

"Yes she is. Tell us little Xion, how old are you?" one of the mermaids asked.

"I'm five-years-old. And my big brother Vani is eight!"

Vanitas gave a small wave towards the mermaids, but they paid no attention to him. They only focused on talking to the little girl who had completed them. Xion went on to talk to them for a bit while Vanitas stood there and watched over her. Soon enough Sora flew down and landed next to the both of them.

"Can we go now? I'm bored," Sora whined.

Vanitas looked at Sora before looking over at Xion. "Hey Xion, how about we go now? We still have to see the other parts of the island."

"Aw, but I wanna talk with the mermaids more," Xion pouted.

"You can come back and talk to them another time, but let's go for right now," Vanitas replied.

Xion sighed heavily as she nodded. She then said goodbye to the mermaids as Vanitas called over to Peter to get his attention. He had just been playing his flute while still sitting on the other rock. He jumped up though and flew over to the group. He told them to follow him as he flew up into the sky.

The three of them followed behind him and they continued their tour around the entire island. They passed by the indian encampment as well as different areas of forest and beach. Eventually they flew near the waters, with the large pirate ship several feet away.

"You really get to fight pirates?" Sora asked as they looked at the ship in the distance. Peter had started to tell them about all the different times he fought against Captain Hook and his crew, and it made Sora all the more interested.

"Yup, but Hook is just a codfish, it's really easy to beat him," Peter replied casually. "I'll have to tell you guys about the time I cut off his hand and fed it to the crocodile."

"You what?!" Vanitas asked in surprise. He looked down at Sora and Xion to see how they reacted to that, and it was what he expected. Both of them looked confused and perhaps a bit scared of that idea of something like that happening.

"Fed his hand to the crocodile," Peter repeated as they headed back towards the tree hideout. "It was rather fun."

"I don't really see how that counts as fun," Vanitas replied.

"You would have had to have been there then. The look on Hook's face was priceless," Peter replied with a laugh.

"Why did you feed… it to the crocodile?" Xion asked quietly, though a look of worry spread across her face.

"Cause. I thought it would be fun," Peter replied rather casually.

Vanitas narrowed his eyes a bit at Peter. He knew that Peter was a kid just like the rest of him, but he never expected to hear something like that from him. He figured from the start that the pirates would be dangerous, but didn't think at first that Peter could also be like that. Vanitas knew he would just have to keep his guard up and keep a close eye on Sora and Xion.

" _I don't want them to get too influenced by Peter… They are my siblings after all,"_ Vanitas thought to himself.

They all headed back inside the tree hideout and went down inside. When they got back down to the underground area, the Lost Boys all came and greeted them. Though as everyone started to talk, he noticed the sleepy look on Sora and Xion. Even though he knew they would want to stay up, he could tell that they were going to fall asleep soon.

He glanced around the room once more, though he didn't notice it the first time, there were actually a few rooms within the underground hideout, More than just that, there were a few smaller beds and hammocks as well set up. Vanitas wondered for a moment if there was all this stuff, why were the Lost Boys sleeping on the floor before? He shrugged it off though as he faced Peter.

"Hey Peter," Vanitas started to ask as he saw Sora and Xion continuing to talk with the Lost Boys. "Where are my siblings and I supposed to sleep?"

"Hmm," Peter hummed as he thought about it. "You guys can sleep on the large bed then. That sound good?"

" _I guess he must also have his own room then in the hideout here,"_ Vanitas commented to himself. He then nodded at Peter and went over to his siblings. They were still talking, but he could see how heavy their eyes had gotten.

"Hey guys, how about we get ready to sleep?"

"Aw do we have to?" Sora asked before yawning right after.

"Yes. You guys need your sleep," Vanitas replied as he wrapped his arms around both Sora and Xion. They slowly wrapped their arms around Vanitas and he stood up, now carrying one on each side of him.

"But I don't wanna sleep," Xion replied as she leaned against Vanitas.

"Hey they don't have to sleep," Peter said as he leaned against a wall. "They can stay and do whatever they want."

Vanitas stared at Peter, narrowing his eyes slightly. "I get that you are like the leader here of everyone, but Sora and Xion and still my siblings. I'm still responsible for them and I will look out for them. So I say when they sleep and everything else."

Peter scoffed slightly. "Sounds like you are trying to act like an adult."

"I don't want to be," Vanitas replied coldly. "The adults were the ones who abandoned us. They didn't care about us. I just want to protect my siblings. I just want to keep them safe. Nothing else."

Vanitas continued to stare at Peter as he stared back. Both boys had a strong and determined glare to their eyes. After a second though, Peter lightened up and smiled. "Ah I get it. You're just being a real good big brother then. Makes sense. But really, you don't have to be so serious all the time."

Vanitas sighed and shook his head. He looked down to see that Sora and Xion had in fact fallen asleep in his arms. He then returned his gaze to Peter. "I am this way because I need to look out for them. We were abandoned at a young age. I had to be the one to look out for them. If I didn't teach myself to be tough and serious… I don't want to think about that. All that matters is that I keep us together. That's why I came here. I saw it as the best option for us. I'll do whatever I can to keep them safe."


	7. Chapter 7

The days passed for the children faster than they realized. It was still a bit hard to grow accustomed to, but they weren't afraid. It was an exciting new place for them and all of them were enjoying the chance of scenery. The world of Neverland was far more amazing than they ever could have expected.

There were a couple of days when Peter and the Lost Boys went to go bother Hook and his crew. Vanitas decided that he would stay back though with his siblings and watch from afar. He didn't want to get all caught up in battles with pirates just yet. He still was uncertain how something would even go like that.

But they did watch from a distance, close enough that Sora could see the pirates at least. That of course made him happy to see, especially when Peter won against Hook and sent him falling into the water. Everyong, including Vanitas, got a laugh when they saw Hook run away like a chicken as the crocodile chased after him.

Life was starting to feel much better for Vanitas. They lived how they wanted to, doing whatever they wanted. Sure a lot of the time Peter led everyone around in some game, but Vanitas started to mind less. Peter was older after all, and Vanitas had to admit he clearly knew how to lead all of the Lost Boys. All of the Lost Boys would always follow after him in each game he came up with. But Vanitas still took the time to be in charge of his own two siblings. He still wanted to be the one they looked up to, not Peter.

One day Vanitas woke up to notice that Peter was not there. Usually in the mornings he would wake everyone up for breakfast before setting out on a fun adventure. But today he wasn't there. Vanitas looked to his side and saw that Sora and Xion were still fast asleep. Both of them were still dressed in their normal attire. Peter had offered them outfits of animals to wear like the rest of the Lost Boys, but Vanitas turned them town. The three of them all prefered their own regular clothes. Vanitas smiled as he pulled the covers of the bed up to cover them a bit more.

" _I guess it must still be early. Might as well go back to sleep,"_ Vanitas thought to himself.

Just as he was about to doze off he heard the familiar jingle of bells coming closer. Tinker Bell. Though it had been some time now since they came to Neverland, neither he nor his siblings would understand Tinkbell. But Peter said it would just take them sometimes until they could understand the language of the fairies. Xion was the most excited from hearing this. Everytime Tinkerbell talked, or jingled, Xion would listen intently, hoping eventually she could understand. Vanitas wasn't exactly sure if he would ever be able to understand the little fairy, but he was glad Xion was so excited about the possibility.

Tinkerbell flew around to each of the Lost Boys, making loud jingles. Even without being able to understand her, Vantias could tell that she was trying to say something urgent. But none of the Lost Boys wanted to wake up even though she was probably shouting at them.

"Hey Tinkerbell," Vanitas said, seeing that she was still trying to wake them. "Would you like me to wake them for you? I'm guessing you need to tell them something."

Tinkerbell flew up close so Vanitas could see her and nodded quickly. Her nod was followed by a series of jingles and hand gestures, none of which Vanitas could figure out. Even without words, her gestures were enough to get most of her messages through.

"All right, I'll try and wake them for you."

Vanitas got out of the bed and walked over to where some of the boys were. The Twins, Cubby, and Slightly were sleeping on a pile on the floor, while Tootles was in a hammock and Nibs was in his own bed off to the side. He went to the group of the boys on the floor and shook Slightly by the shoulder.

The boy in the fox outfit stirred, but did not wake. Vanitas sighed and tried a little harder. "Hey, wake up. Tinkerbell has something she wants to tell you."

But still he did not wake. Vanitas was ready to try again, this time thinking he would speak a little louder, when a jingle of bells distracted him. He looked to find Tinkerbell next to Cubby's club, which rested above the wall by the group on the floor. She jingled again as she pointed to the club.

Vanitas blinked, trying to think what she could be saying. Then it became a bit more clear. "No, I don't think we need to do that. Wouldn't that just make them angry?"

Tinkerbell shrugged with a small jingle reply and then flew closer to Vanitas. She placed her hands on her hips, waiting to see if he could wake the boys without resorting to a more violent way.

Vanitas sighed as he tried to think. He thought about how he would wake up Xion and Sora if they were sleeping too long. He remembered back specifically when Xion liked to wake up him or Sora. Though he wasn't exactly sure if that same method would work on the Lost Boys.

But he guessed he could give it a try. He didn't want to try Tinkerbell's more aggressive method anyway. Who would have thought the little fairy could think of such things?

He leaned over the pile of four sleeping boys, then flopped down on top of them. Immediately they woke up and started to squirm. Each of them were now shouting different things at him, trying to push him off of them. And in all the commotion it seems Nibs and Tootles had awakened and now jumped on top of Vanitas. It seemed as if they thought it was a fun game.

Vanitas now struggled to get away from the other boys as they roughhoused around. "Hey! Cut it out!" he shouted, hoping they would calm down.

But they were too caught in the game of tackling one another to notice. They laughed and jumped around, trying to stay on top while Vanitas just wanted to get away from them. While he would tackle and play with Xion and Sora, he was not used to this kind of rough housing.

Thankfully he heard the jingles of Tinkerbell and Slightly turned to look at her. "Orders from Pan?" Slightly then looked at the rest of the group, who now we're all piled on top of Vanitas. "Hold it men!"

The remaining Lost Boys came to a halt and looked up at Tinkerbell. Vanitas breathed a sigh of relief, but he still couldn't move with the boys on top of him. He pushed himself forward though and managed to sit back up. He took a glance over to the bed where Sora and Xion were. They were still fast asleep, leaving Vanitas to chuckle at their deep sleeping abilities.

"What's the orders Tink?" Nibs asked, taking off his hood.

Tinkerbell flapped her hands and made a series of different jingles.

"A terrible… what?" Cubby asked.

"Wendy bird," Slightly replied as he flapped his hands as if to mimic whatever a Wendy bird was.

"What's a Wendy bird?" Vanitas asked, having never heard such a type of bird before.

"I don't know, but Pan knows," Slightly said before turning to Tinkerbell who was saying more. "And it's flying this way?"

Tinkerbell gave a quick nod before continuing her series of jingles, trying to explain everything.

"And uh, Pan's orders are…" Cubby started before he gasped with shock. "What?"

Tinkerbell kicked her foot followed by a jingle.

"Smash it?" Cubby asked.

"Kick it?" Slightly asked.

"Stomp it?" One of the twins asked, with the other following in suit asking the same thing.

Tinkerbell shook her head and started making a new gesture. Vanitas started to figure that not everything she said could easily be understood. Either that or the Lost Boys couldn't understand her as perfectly as Peter did.

Tinkerbell pointed to the sky and started making little movements. She pointed to the sky then towards the ground.

"Oh!" Slightly exclaimed. "Shoot it down!"

Vanitas raised an eyebrow to this. He knew Peter was already a bit strange and more daring than any other child he had met, but he wanted his Lost Boys to shoot something? He started to ponder it, but then he remembered what Peter said about Captain Hook. He had cut off the pirate's hand and thought it was all good fun. So maybe this was something similar? Whatever it was, Tinkerbell made it seem rather urgent.

The Lost Boys grabbed their slingshots, clubs, sticks and other weapons and ran out of the hideout. Vanitas stayed behind, still trying to process what he had just witnessed.

He walked over to the bed and looked at Sora and Xion once more. They were snuggled up against each other, with both of them having one hand on Xion's moogle doll. He thought about crawling back into bed with them, but his curiosity to see what was going to happen with this 'Wendy bird' caught his attention.

"I'll be right back guys, don't worry," Vanitas whispered to them. If anything was getting shot down, he wouldn't want them to see it.

He made his way out of the hideout, using one of the many secret exits. At first he was unsure where everyone had gone, but upon listening more he could hear their shootings. He followed to find them in an area that overlooked part of the cliffs.

As Vanitas got closer he heard the boys clamoring about seeing the Wendy bird. Vanitas got up behind the group and looked to the skies. There he could see something… but it was unlike any bird he had ever seen.

"You sure Peter said yo shoot this… Wendy bird down?" Vanitas asked.

Tinkerbell flew right up to his face and nodded quickly.

"Tinkerbell says that's Pan's orders," Slightly said.

"But it's just that-" Vanitas started to say, seeing that the 'bird' looked far more like a person than any old bird.

Slightly shouted for the boys to fire and they began to throw all their weapons at the 'Wendy bird' out ahead of them. The more Vanitas stared the more he could see that he was actually a girl, and now several weapons and objects were being thrown and shot at her. She screamed as she fell, most likely due to being caught off guard from the Lost Boys attacks.

After she fell out of sight, Peter could be seen flying after her. A million questions formed in his head, but he didn't get much time to think as the Lost Boys shouted loudly and ran towards a path that would lead them down to where Peter went. Vanitas had no other choice, but to follow, out of wanting to know what on earth had happened.

Vanitas ran to catch up to the energetic Lost Boys, but they were already far ahead. Vanitas had the thought just to turn around and head back to the hideout to check on Sora and Xion, but he still wanted to know what had happened to the 'Wendy bird'.

" _I don't get it,"_ Vanitas thought to himself. " _Tinkerbell said that Peter wanted them to shoot… that girl down? But he went to fly after her when she fell. Was Tinkerbell wrong? I don't get it…"_

Once Vanitas made it down to where everyone else was, he could see the boys shouting to Peter about their accomplishments. Behind Peter stood three children Vanitas had never seen before. The oldest looking one was a girl, most likely who the Lost Boys had fired at, then a boy a few years younger than her who wore glasses. Finally, there was also a little boy who seemed to be even younger than Sora and Xion.

Vanitas got a little bit closer to the group when Peter yelled "Attention!" loudly at the Lost Boys.

They quickly all lined up saluted at him. Vanitas stood off to the side though and only watched. He didn't participate in the attack on the girl, so he saw no real reason to join in. Peter seemed to send him a glance, wondering, but then must have figured it out.

"Well…" Peter started. "I'm certainly proud of you…"

The Lost Boy's smiled, but before they could savor their accomplishment Peter continued "You block heads!"

The Lost Boys frowned, slumping their shoulders.

Peter started pacing back and forth between the boys. "I bring ya a mother to tell ya stories… and you shoot her down."

" _A mother?"_ Vanitas questioned. He looked at the girl who smiled sweetly at everyone. " _How can she be a mother? But… a girl being a mother… to tell us stories? I still don't get it…"_

Vanitas started to think this as the Lost Boys told Peter what Tinkerbell had told them. The result of the conversation ended with Peter trying to banish Tinkerbell from Neverland forever. Another surprising thing that Vanitas didn't expect from Peter.

" _Can he really just banish someone from Neverland? He's just a kid like me… could he have some kind of power to do that though? He can fly on his own it seems… I don't know…Then there is Tinkerbell… she was really okay will the possibility of almost killing that girl? What's with her… she wasn't like that before."_ Vanitas groaned as his headache slightly. There were far too many questions that he knew would probably never be answered.

Thankfully the girl who wore the blue dress convinced Peter to only banish Tinkerbell for a week. Either way she flew off in an angry huff, not once looking back. But with that, Vanitas still could not believe that had even happened. Despite everything strange and weird that had happened since on his journey, there were still many things that were just odd at times.

"Come on, Wendy, I'll show you the island," Peter finally said.

While Peter was going to take Wendy to see the mermaids, the Lost Boys, and Wendy's brothers wanted to go do something else. Peter told them to go set out and try to capture some Indians, which they all seemed excited about.

Vanitas thoughts back to the tour around the island. He remembered passing by where the Indians lived, but they never went to see them. Peter had explained though that he and the Lost Boys liked to play a lot of games with them, and it was all for fun.

Vanitas wasn't exactly sure how chasing and play fighting with Indians counted as fun. Then again he had never gone out on a lot of adventures before all of this. It was probably normal for the kids in Neverland. Maybe in due time he would get used to it, but for now it was still a bit too much for him.

"You gonna join us?" a voice suddenly asked Vanitas. He looked down to see the littlest of the three new children; Michael. He carried a little teddy bear, similar to how Xion had her moogle doll. Vanitas figured that they would probably get along rather well once they met.

Vanitas looked at him and then the rest of the boys, all of them looking for his answer. He shrugged slightly. "I don't know… my brother and sister are still sleeping… I should probably go check on them."

"You can do that then," the other boy, John, said. "If you wish, you join us later, we would be happy if you did." John then turned to the rest of the boys. "Now, forward! March!"

All of the Lost Boys now followed behind John as he marched off into the forest, off onto an adventure. Micheal looked to Vanitas and waved goodbye to him, causing Vanitas to smile and wave back. After they were out of sight, Vanitas started making his way back to the tree hideout.

He did want to check on his siblings. That was his main reason for not wanting to join them. But there was one other. The other one being… he still wasn't used to having so many friendly kids around him. Back at the orphanage there were a couple, but even then Vanitas just stuck with his little siblings. Rarely ever did he play with anyone else, unless he was playing with Xion or Sora who was playing with another.

When he got back to the hideout, he could hear the little voices of Sora and Xion. Once he was down to the level where the beds were, he saw them sitting up in bed talking to one another. Xion currently was holding her moogle up in the air, moving him around like he was flying. They heard him approach and turned to smile at him.

"Vanitas!" they shouted before jumping off the bed.

Without much time to react, they crashed into his legs, knocking him over. He laughed though once he saw their shining little smiles. He put one arm around each of them and held them close. "Hey guys, hope I didn't worry you being away."

"No, we were okay," Xion said. "We were playing with Kupo while we waiting."

"We pretended he could fly! Like we can now," Sora added.

"That sounds fun," Vanitas said, trying to sit back up a little.

"Where is everyone? Where they all go?" Xion then asked.

"Peter brought more kids like us to Neverland it seems. And they went off to see the island," Vantias explained.

"Ooh! Can we go joining them? Are they going to see the mermaids again?" Xion asked, her eyes lighting up with wonder.

"Or what about the pirates! I still wanna see them up close! Like as close as Peter gets," Sora said, bouncing with excitement.

"Maybe later," Vanitas said. "We've been playing with Peter and the Lost Boys lately, haven't we?"

"Yup!" Xion stated. "And don't forget Tinkerbell! I've played with her a lot too!"

Vanitas opened his mouth, about to tell what happened to Tinkerbell, but he quickly closed it. It would only make Xion upset. Instead he nodded to her. "You're right about that. But today I wanted to play with just you two. Like we used to before coming here."

"What we going to play though?" Sora asked.

"Hmm… we could go play down by the shores. We could play in the water and have fun splashing around."

Sora and Xion giggled with delight.

"Yay! Let's do that!"

"We can swim and I can pretend I'm a mermaid!"

Vanitas chuckled as Xion and Sora jumped off of him to stand up. After they were on their feet, Vanitas proceeded to stand up. "Then let's go."

He held out a hand to both of them and they took it right away. A fun day with his siblings. This is what he wanted most out of everything. Time with them, with no one to interrupt them or to take them away. A perfect happiness. Vantias smiled as they exited the hideout, happy to be with the only two that mattered to him. And that is how he wanted to stay, happy and simple.


	8. Chapter 8

Vanitas, with Sora and Xion played by the shore for most of the day. Though he knew that Peter Pan and the others were elsewhere on the island, he gave no thought to it. He was enjoying his personal time with his siblings, and that was all that he planned to do.

Later on, after they had tired themselves of playing in the water, they headed back to the hideout. Once they were dried off, Xion went over to Vanitas and sat next to him on the bed. "Hey, Vani?"

"Yeah, Xion?"

"Can I see the picture of us again?"

"Sure, why do you wanna see it?" Vanitas asked as he took it out of his jacket pocket.

"I just like to look at it!," Xion beamed happily. "It's my favorite picture."

"Well if it is your favorite, how about you get to hold onto it for now," Vanitas replied as he handed the picture to her.

She took it from his hands and smiled down at it. "Really? Can I?"

"Course you can," Vanitas replied as he placed a hand on her head.

"Now what are we going to do?" Sora said as he climbed up onto the bed on Vanitas's other side. "Maybe we can go find Peter Pan and the others?"

"I don't know," Vanitas replied. "We don't even know where they all went off to by now."

Vanitas could see his siblings frown slightly. Though he didn't want to upset them, he still wanted to spend most of his time with only them. Despite being here for sometime now, he still wasn't too friendly with the Lost Boys, though Sora and Xion were perfectly fine. But that was how they always were, always friendly to everyone. And from that they were usually pretty much happy all the time.

Finally Vanitas had a new thought to try and cheer them up. "Okay, we can go looking later, okay? But I think after all that playing you two could have a nap first. What do you think?"

"I think we need food first!" Sora replied. "I'm really hungry."

"Me too," Xion added.

"All right," we will get some food and then take a short nap. How does that sound?"

Xion stood up on the bed and jumped up and down. "Yay! I like that! We can go and play with everyone then!"

Vanitas laughed before he went to grab Xion by the waist and pulled her back down onto the bed. He held her tightly as she squirmed to get free, though she broke into laughter in the process. "Ah ha, Vaaaani! Let goooo of me!"

"Why though? I'm not doing anything… yet." Vanitas smirked as he started to tickle Xion slightly, resulting in her laughing even more.

"Hey, I wanna play too!" Sora shouted as he jumped on top of the two of them.

Vanitas grunted slightly from the surprise weight of Sora, but he quickly adjusted himself so he was holding both his little siblings in his hands. With one in each arm he pulled them close into a tight hug before proceeding to try and tickle them again. Their joyous laughter rang throughout the room, and soon Vanitas was laughing along with them, out of the sheer amusement that was brought in the moment.

* * *

Later on the three of them started to wake up. They had eaten their food earlier and then went to nap, but Vanitas wasn't exactly sure how much time went by during it. Neither Peter Pan or any of the Lost Boys had returned yet, and now it was really beginning to make Vantias wonder.

Xion let out a yawn before opening her eyes. "Vani? Where is everyone?"

"I don't know, maybe they are still out playing or something," Vanitas replied.

"Can we go find them now?" Sora asked after he woke up next.

"Yeah, I guess we can," Vanitas said just as they heard footsteps coming from one of the entrances.

The girl from earlier came storming down, an angry look deep within her face. Vanitas thought for a moment, trying to remember back to the morning when her name was said. It was Wendy. Though he wasn't too sure why she was back or why she was angry.

But as soon as she saw Vanitas, Sora, and Xion, her anger faded. "Oh! I didn't know that you were here. You were with the other Lost Boys this morning, right?"

"Yeah," Vanitas replied quietly.

"I don't think we ever properly introduce ourselves. My name is Wendy," she said as she smiled.

"Vanitas."

"And I'm Xion!" Xion stated proudly. "And that's my twin Sora. And Vani is our big brother. It's nice to meet you."

Wendy smiled kindly before walking over to the bed. "It's nice to meet you Xion, Sora, and Vanitas."

"You know where Peter Pan went?" Sora asked. "We were going to go find him."

Wendy's frown returned and she let out a huff of air. "He's over at the indian encampment with all the others."

"Why are they there?" Xion asked as she tilted her head.

"Oh Peter saved the chief's daughter, Tiger Lily. And they were all celebrating."

Xion bounced up and down, her eyes filling with excitement. "Like a party?"

"I suppose you could say that," Wendy replied dryly before sitting down. "But I didn't enjoy it."

Xion tilted her head, seeming the most interested in Wendy's story. She crawled across the bed to sit closer to her and gave her a big, wide-eyed stare. "Why's that?"

"Because," Wendy responded before letting out another huff of air.

"Because why?" Xion asked again.

Wendy let out another sigh. "They wouldn't let me join in any of the fun. All I was allowed to do was gather firewood."

"That's not very nice!" Xion exclaimed.

"Yeah, that's not nice at all. They should play with all of them," Sora added.

Vanitas didn't give any opinion though. He didn't really know what to think of the situation. But from what he could tell, Wendy was clearly upset from not getting to have fun at the party. And if that was the case, he wondered what would happen if they showed up and wanted to join.

"I guess we won't go then," Vanitas finally said, drawing the attention of Sora and Xion.

Xion nodded in agreement. "Yeah! It's not nice to not let people play with them! If they won't let Wendy play, then I don't wanna try to play either!"

"Oh, you don't have to stay back here if you don't want to," Wendy said. "I shouldn't stop you from trying to have fun."

"But you said they wouldn't let you play," Sora replied. "I don't wanna be told that I can't play. So we can just play here!"

Xion smiled before crawling back over to Sora. "Yay! We can do that. We can all play together! Right Vani?"

Vanitas's eyes widened slightly. " _Play… together? Does she mean have Wendy play with us? I… I don't know…"_ Vanitas trailed off as he thought about it.

He still wasn't too sure about these new kids that Peter had brought, especially since he had called Wendy 'their mother' to the Lost Boys. But this girl was still just that… a girl. Not an adult. Not a mother. He still didn't know her yet, as it had only been a day since Wendy and her brothers showed. But he looked to Sora and Xion, who smiled at him, waiting for his answer. They were always so friendly and nice to everyone. So far everyone they encountered on their journey they wanted to start talking to have a nice time with. And he knew it would seem rude to deny playing all together right when Wendy was in the same room as them.

"Yeah, we can do that. I mean, if you want to play with us," Vanitas said before looking at Wendy.

She smiled at them and gave a nod. "I think that would be nice. It would take my mind off the other stuff anyway."


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some angst up ahead but heh that's what it is.

The four children chatted with each other and played a few simple games. Well technically three of them, Vanitas mainly stayed to the side when Wendy started to tell a story about Peter Pan. Sure Xion and Sora were engrossed by the storytelling, but Vanitas just didn't care as much. He was happy at least that his siblings were entertained. If Wendy and her own siblings were also going to be staying in Neverland, Vanitas was glad that it seemed like they could all get along.

After a little while a loud commotion could be heard from outside. Soon all of the Lost Boys came piling in, all still dressed up in outfits they had gotten from the Indians. They danced around and shouted rambunctiously, still full of energy.

Wendy sighed as she looked away from all the boys as they ran around. Eventually Peter came in, wearing a large and feather headdress. "Big Chief Flying Eagle greets his braves. How." He smiled cheerfully as he held up a hand to the Lost Boys. Vanitas saw Xion and Sora giggling trying to mimic what the others were doing for a greeting to Peter. He shrugged at it, seeing as it was just some silly greeting as far as he could tell.

Vanitas watched as all of them calmed down and started to reply back saying 'How' back to Peter. With a quick side glance he looked to Wendy and saw she still looked rather annoyed, not even making eye contact with Peter.

He eventually walked over to her and then spoke to her, still smiling happily. "Big chief greets little mother. How."

"Ugh," Wendy replied grumpily.

"Oh Wendy, is that all you have to say? Everyone else thinks I'm wonderful," Peter replied, looking a little upset that Wendy didn't seem as happy as the rest.

"Especially Tiger Lily," Wendy sulked as she stood up from the bed.

Peter looked confused. "Tiger Lily?"

Vanitas continued to watch as Wendy went over to her brothers, clapping her hands together.

"John. Michael," they continue whooping. "Take off that war paint and get ready for bed."

John and Micheal, who had been singing and dancing around stopped to look at her, both of them very confused. "Bed?" John asked.

"Brave no sleep. Go for days without sleep," Micheal replied.

"But boys, we're going home in the morning," Wendy replied as she stared pulling back the covers of the bed.

" _She wants to go home?"_ Vanitas thought to himself. " _Why would she want that?"_

Both John and Michael also seemed confused about this as well, with Michael frowning at her. "Oh, Wendy, we don't want to go home."

Peter jumped over to the boys and shook his head. "No go home. Stay many moons. Have heap big time."

Wendy walked over to Peter and tried to place a hand on his arm. "Now Peter, let's stop pretending and be practical."

Much to the surprise of Vanitas, he watched Peter just walk away from her and head towards his own private room. "Chief Flying Eagle has spoken."

The boys started to cheer as Peter went off to the other room. Even Sora and Xion cheered along, and were about to run and join the Lost Boys who had begun to dance around in a circle. Vanitas was quick to grab on to them though. "Whoa, hold on there guys. What do you think you are doing?"

"We wanna play with the other Lost boys," Xion replied.

"Looks like they are being rather silly with their dancing, don't you think?" Vanitas asked.

"Yeah, so? We wanna play," Sora added.

Suddenly the noise from the Lost Boys started to quiet down. Vanitas, Sora, and Xion looked over to see that the Lost Boys were now looking at Wendy. The three of them hadn't quite caught what was being said, but soon Cubby spoke up.

"I think I had a mother once."

"What was she like?" the twins asked.

Cubby thought for a moment, scratching his head. "I forget."

"I had a white rat," Nibs added in energetically.

"That's no mother!" Cubby shouted as he shoved Nibs away.

A moment later the Lost boys were tackling one another and roughhousing around. Vanitas could feel Sora and Xion grab hold of his hand, slightly startled by the ruckus. He scoffed at the sight of it.

" _Why would they be talking about mothers… what does it matter here?"_

Wendy finally cleared her throat and spoke up towards the boys who were still fighting with one another. "No, no, boys. Please. I'll tell you what a mother is."

Suddenly the boys stopped fighting and looked extremely excited. They ran over to her, all shouting different things.

"Yeah tell us."

"Tell us."

"Please Wendy."

Vanitas felt Xion let go of his hand, before he could even grab on to her she had already ran over to Wendy. "I wanna know about a mother too."

"Me too," Sora added, as he walked over next to Xion.

"Hey, wait," Vanitas whispered out, but his voice was barely even heard. He stayed just out of the group's new circle, unable to move as he watched Wendy start to talk again.

"Well, a mother, a real mother is the most wonderful person in the world. She's the angel voice…" Wnedy picked up Michael and placed him in her lap before continuing. "that bids you good night kisses." Wendy then wiped off the war paint that was still on Michael's cheeks. "your cheek, whispers 'sleep tight'"

Wendy then began to sing in a gentle and sweet voice.

_Your mother and mine_

_your mother and mine_

_the helping hand that guides you along_

_whether you're right_

_whether you're wrong_

_Your mother and mine_

_your mother and mine_

_what makes mothers_

_all that they are_

_might as well ask what makes a star_

_Ask your heart_

_to tell you her worth_

_your heart will say_

_Heaven on Earth_

_another word for divine_

_your mother and mine_

Vanitas watched throughout the entire song, he watched each and everyone carefully. While he mainly kept an eye on his two little siblings, he could see how the other children were reacting. Each of them slowly became much more sad than they were before. Then before Vanitas knew it, he could see the sad longing sadness in Xion and Sora's eyes! Xion started to clutch her moogle plush tightly before burying her head against it, clearing being affected by the song just like the rest.

Now that her song was over, Michael reached forward to hug his sister. With big teary eyes he finally spoke. "I wanna see my mother."

"Yes, Michael," Wendy replied gently.

"I propose we leave for home at once," John stated as he stood up.

Suddenly the Lost Boys began to shout again, each of them asking if they could come along with Wendy. She laughed happily and nodded at them.

"All right boys. All right. I'm sure mother would be glad to have you. Uh, that is if Peter doesn't mind."

"Go on!" Peter grumbled as he stormed out from his room. "Go back and grow up! But I'm warning you, once you're grown-up you can never come back. Never." He then quickly went back into his room without another word.

Wendy sighed as the Lost Boys, along with Jon and Michael started to head out. Xion then walked up to her and tugged on her dress. "Can we come too?"

Wendy smiled at Xion. "Of course. You are all welcome to come."

"Now wait a minute!" Vanitas shouted. "I didn't agree to this. Xion, we are not leaving."

"But why?" Xion asked.

"Cause I said so. We found this place and we aren't going to leave."

"Oh come now," Wendy said. "You really want to stay here and never grow? Never to be with your mother again?"

"But we don't have one…" Sora whispered before lowering his head.

"She didn't need to know that," Vanitas huffed, now averting his gaze from Wendy.

"Oh dear, that's terrible to hear. Please then, you should come along. I know my mother would let you all stay with us," Wendy said. Truly she was shocked to hear such a thing. How could anyone not have a mother? It just seemed strange and wrong for any sweet children not to. She didn't know too much about Vanitas and his siblings, so she could never really understand what they must have gone through. Though she wasn't going to ask about it, she could only keep wondering.

"We don't need a mother!" Vanitas snapped. "We came here to live our lives without needing to worry about adults like a mother. And that is how it is going to stay!"

"But Vani," Sora said, staring up at his big brother. "We could maybe-"

"I said no, and that is going to be it," Vanitas grumbled. "We're staying here." He wrapped his arms around his siblings and pulled them in close. "We are sticking together here, and as the big brother that is what I say we are going to do."

"Well, if that is what you want," Wendy said, not wanting to force the boy if he didn't want to.

She turned to leave, glancing to the draped fur area that led to Peter's room. "Goodbye Peter."

Wendy then headed up the stairs and out of the hideout. Once she was gone Xion pulled away from Vanitas's hold and turned around to pout at him. "Why couldn't we go?!"

"Cause I said so."

"No!" Xion shouted. "I wanted to go. We should go!"

Vanitas shook his head. "Xion no. We are not going to follow someone home and just go live with them and their mother. The plan was to run away where we could do what we wanted. And this is the perfect place for it."

"But I want a mommy!" Xion shouted, tears forming in her eyes. "I want mommy and daddy back…"

"You can't even remember them. It's best that way. Just forget about it and we can find something fun to do instead," Vanitas said, hoping to get Xion off the topic.

Sora, who was still in Vanitas's arm, started to sniffle. "I want mommy and daddy too."

"I already said you two can't remember them, right? So why do you want them? Parents are stupid, we don't need them," Vanitas replied.

"But Wendy sang why we should have a mommy! I wanna go with them!" Xion said before grabbing her moogle plush tightly and turning to run up the stairs.

"Xion wait!" Vanitas shouted as he ran after her.

"Wait!" Sora shouted as he headed out after them.

As Vanitas exited the hideout, he saw that a present was left at the top of the stairs. He paid no attention to it though as he exited the tree and started to look for Xion. Thankfully she was only a few feet away. Quickly he ran up to her and grabbed a hold of her.

"Vani! Stop it! Let go!" Xion said, squirming in Vanitas's arms.

"I said we aren't going with Wendy. We are going to stay here and be happy," Vanitas replied.

"But I want mommy! I wanna go!" Xion replied, her eyes filling up with more tears.

"I said it already, we don't need a mom. You have me to watch out for you. We don't need something like that. You really want parents? Someone to make you do things you don't wanna do? Or even yell at you? What if Wendy's parents said no? What if they just forgot about us or left us? Huh? Then what would you do?"

"No!" Xion sobbed. "That won't happen. Wendy said-"

"Who cares what Wendy says. She isn't your sibling. What matters is what I say. I'm not going to let us go with them."

"Vani…" Sora muttered as he watched Vanitas and Xion struggle with each other.

He had never seen them act like this before. Xion had always looked up to Vanitas and loved him dearly as one should love their big brother. But now… they were shouting and yelling at each other… and it scared Sora. They… They were fighting… and that had never happened before. He didn't know what to do, not at all.

"I wanna go home then!" Xion shouted as she finally pulled away from Vanitas. "Let us use the star so we go back! Maybe… Oh! Maybe we can find mommy and daddy with it! Maybe if we find them then they will take us home."

Vanitas gritted his teeth. He could feel his heart burning from this. All the thoughts of mothers and fathers surfacing in his mind… bring back those bad memories he would have rather forgotten.

"They won't Xion! They left us! They didn't care about us! If they loved us then they would never have left us!"

"Then we can find a new mommy and daddy!" Xion suggested.

"Yeah!" Sora interjected quickly. He hoped that he could help calm down Vanitas, seeing him so upset still did scare him slightly, but he wanted to help. "We could be adopted together!"

"And if we aren't?" Vanitas asked as he crossed his arms.

"Ah… um… we could still visit each other!" Sora quickly replied. "I bet they would let us visit each other!"

"Oh yeah?" Vanitas scoffed. "Remember your friend Riku?" Vanitas watched as Sora's eyes went wide. "Yeah remember him? He was adopted and he said he would come back and visit us. And then remember what happened? He _never_ did! He forgot all about us!"

Sora started to show his tears now. Riku was one of the best friends he had made in the orphanage, and it hurt his little heart the day Riku was adopted. He kept hoping for the day that Riku would come by and visit, but the days kept moving on and the workers at the orphanages could never tell him anything about where Riku was.

Xion frowned heavily and went up to hit Vanitas on his leg. "You're being mean Vani! Stop it! You making Sora cry!"

"I'm not trying to! I am only trying to protect you guys! I don't want to lose your or have you guys be hurt! Trust me, I know what is best!"

Xion breathed out heavily as she glared at Vanitas, trying to think of what to say next. In the corner of her eye she saw something glowing from Vanitas's pocket. Without a word she reached into his pocket and pulled out the star.

"If you won't go find a mommy and daddy, then I will!"

"Xion give that back!" Vanitas shouted as he grabbed onto the star.

Xion held on as tight as she could to the star, making sure that Vanitas couldn't take it back. The two soon were playing tug of war with one another over the star, all while Sora was watching, still trying to recover from the shock of thinking of Riku again. It still scared him to see his siblings fighting so much, and soon he couldn't take it just standing there. He reached forward and tried to grab the star for himself.

"Stop fighting guys!" Sora shouted as he tried to pull the star away for himself.

"Stop it both of you!" Vanitas shouted. "Just listen! We are staying here and we are NOT going to find a mom and dad!"

"You're really mean Vani!" Xion shouted as loud as she could. "You aren't being nice to us! I hate you!"

Vanitas's eyes widened as the words hit him right in the heart, but before he could say anything, a loud crack was heard. He didn't even have a chance to locate where it was from as a blinding light flashed out from the star, and a strong force pushed him back. He shut his eyes and he tumbled back, expecting to hit the hard ground.

Except he didn't.

What he tumbled down into was soft and easily moveable.

Sand.

Vanitas opened his eyes and could tell that something was different, but his head felt a bit hazy for some reason. He blinked and the first thing he noticed was that the sky seemed a bit different. It was evening, with the sun nearly gone from the sky, but the stars had just started to show. There were no longer trees covering him and there seemed rather warm and try outside.

Once he looked around though, he saw that everything was completely different. No longer was he on an island, but instead he was sitting in the sand, and there was sand and only sand for miles.

His heart started to race as he scrambled to his feet. He looked around, but he didn't see Sora or Xion anywhere around him.

"Xion! Sora" Vanitas screamed as loud as he could.

There was no answer aside from the wind that started to pick up. Vanitas shielded his eyes as the sand tried to hit against him. When the wind died down he saw that he was still holding something in his hand. Slowly releasing his fingers on it, he saw that he was holding the star… well part of it. Only a fraction of it was in his palm… it was now broken and he didn't see the other parts anywhere near him.

Quickly Vanitas closed his eyes and thought of going back home, pleading to the star to take him back. Nothing happened though no matter how hard he tried.

" _Xion… Sora… where are they? Where am I? Is this… just another world? Are they in this world with me? Where could they be?"_

Vanitas's thoughts ran through his mind at a mile a minute. He could barely even process what he was trying to think. His eyes were quickly becoming blurry and his heart was tearing and twisting within him. He had no idea where he was… but he was certain of one thing.

He was separated from Sora and Xion.

Then, Vanitas did something he never expected he would ever do again. Something he hadn't done in years.

He cried.

The tears burst out of him as he dropped down to his knees. He could feel the pain in his heart growing and the tears showed no sign of stopping. He wrapped his arms around his stomach, hoping to stop the pain that was twisting around within him would stop. It only got worse with each passing second.

The sobs grew harder and louder, and his tears kept flowing like rivers. He had never felt so afraid and hurt before. Never before had he ever felt like this. He was all alone in some other world and the star was broken. He had no way to get home or even find Sora or Xion.

He was completely alone… and it was all his fault. He balled his hands into fists and hit the sand, trying to let out his frustration. It was only sand though, and really did not do anything to divert his anger.

" _They're gone… I lost them. I just thought I was doing the right thing… why couldn't they see that?"_ Vanitas thought to himself.

The wind picked up again and Vanitas shuddered. It felt pretty cold out even though he seemed to be in some land with piles of sand. Despite feeling heavy in his heart and his entire body, he knew one thing… he had to move and find somewhere safe.

" _Maybe… maybe Sora and Xion are here… just somewhere else. I gotta find them…"_

Vanitas finally stood himself up and began to look around. At first he thought there was only sand and nothing else, but then he saw something off in the distance. There was some kind of city that he could see. It was unlike anything he had seen though, with some castle that he could see more than anything, but again it was strange looking.

Either way, he saw it as the only thing for as far as the eye could see. Slowly, with the tears still streaming down his face, he made his way towards the city. Hoping that he would be able to find his siblings, but he had a lingering feeling that told him they wouldn't be there. That was something that truly scared him… he was now really and truly separated from them… and he was alone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To anyone who is reading this story still, thank you. I just hope everyone is enjoying the stuff.


	10. Chapter 10

Vanitas stumbled and trudged through the sandy landscape. The sunlight was nearly all gone now, and he had just arrived at the town he had seen. People were walking around, a few of them giving him glances, but other than that they kept to themselves.

Vanitas didn't want them to talk to him anyways. He only wanted to find his siblings. He couldn't bear the fact that they could be in some other world someplace else. He didn't want to believe it was true, though the broken star was trying to tell him something else. It was clear it had been broken for a reason, but that was what he hated most about it.

It had broken because he was fighting with his siblings. He had actually fought with them and yelled at them. It was something he had never ever done before, not even once. He loved Sora and Xion dearly and he cherished them for they were all he had. He only had wanted to make sure they were happy and that they could stay together.

Now he had yelled at them and said awful things to them. Awful things that left his stomach feeling sick and his heart heavy. Eventually the light in the sky was gone and now everything was much darker than before. As far as he could see there were no longer any people outside, and he could feel the wind picking up again.

He pulled tightly on his jacket, hoping to shield any sand that could fly at him. He looked around once more and saw he was lost somewhere within this village he had seen, but with such a large place he had no idea where to go from there.

Slowly he came to a stop and sat down on the ground. Another sob came out from his throat before he could even try to stop it, and before long he was full out crying once again.

He hated that. He hated to cry so much. He hadn't cried once in years, not once. He had cried a lot at first when he first arrived at the orphanage, but then he decided to stop all of that. Once he saw that he needed to care for Sora and Xion, crying and being sad about things became moot to him.

Though now that he had lost his siblings, he didn't know what to do anymore and those suppressed emotions crawled back out. His stomach twisted and turned as the sobs kept piling out of him. It just wouldn't stop at all, and he wasn't sure if he would ever be able to. He tried pulling his legs up against his chest, trying to stop the pain, but nothing seemed to be working.

"Hey, what are you doing out here all by yourself?" a voice asked.

Vanitas looked up to see someone standing before him. Whomever they were wore a strange outfit that consisted of an off-white poofy-like pants and a purple vest but nothing under that. Though there was a small red hat on the top of his black messy hair.

Vanitas scooted back from the man, shaking his head. He didn't want any adults around, not one bit. He knew that he was alone and it was dark outside, but he still did not want any help from an adult.

"You don't have to be scared, I only want to make sure that you are okay," the man said, speaking in a friendly voice.

He kneeled down and looked at Vanitas more carefully. It was then that Vanitas saw that there was something on the man's shoulder. It was a small monkey that also wore a vest and a red hat.

"I don't want any help!" Vanitas shouted, though the worse came out weak and rough. This throat was still raspy and sore from all the crying he had just done.

"But why are you out here all alone? Are you lost?" the man asked, unphased by Vanitas's rudeness.

"N-No! I'm not lost!" Vanitas grumbled.

"Well, do you need help getting home? It's getting dark outside you know."

Home? What a stupid question to ask, for Vanitas there was no home, not anymore. He thought he had found the perfect home to live with his siblings, but he was now torn away from that.

Despite wanting this man to leave him alone, there was something nice about the friendly way that he was speaking. There was a bit of comfort to hear someone speak so kindly to him.

"I… I have no home…" Vanitas muttered without even thinking. "I just wanna find my brother and sister."

"Ah, I see. Well, I would be glad to help you look for them, but right now it is getting dark. Why don't you come with me so you can have a place to sleep?"

"No!" Vanitas shouted again. "I don't wanna."

The man looked a little confused. "Why not?"

"Cause I don't want any help from an adult! I can do it myself!" Vanitas said, trying to keep himself from crying again.

"I wouldn't really say I'm an adult, only eighteen after all," the man… or older boy said. "But I understand how you feel, you know to be without a home."

This caught Vanitas's attention. "Huh? You mean… you're an orphan like me?"

"Orphan, ha I guess that is a nicer way to say it. But yeah, that's what I am," the boy replied solemely.

"Still? You still are one?" Vanitas asked, now feeling curious to hear about this person.

The boy nodded. "Yeah, but I manage the best I can. So, can I help you?"

Vanitas stared quietly at the boy, trying to understand. He could see how calm and friendly the guy was, but still Vanitas felt a little uneasy around him. Even if he wasn't an adult, he still was much older than him, but he did know about living on his own.

" _Maybe I could learn how to live like he does if he has lived like this for a while,"_ Vanitas thought to himself. " _He seems to be doing fine without parents…"_

"You can trust me," the boy said again, holding out his hand to Vanitas.

Slowly Vanitas reached out and took his hand, and the older boy pulled him to his feet. "There you go. Now let's get going okay?"

Vanitas wiped away the tears that still sat on his cheek before he nodded. They two of them started their way along the now empty pathway. "So, what's your name?"

"Vanitas," Vanitas muttered as he started down at the ground, now only noticing that the boy he was walking with didn't even have shoes.

"Nice to meet you Vanitas, I'm Aladdin, and this is Abu."

The monkey on his shoulder gave something that sounded like a cheerful screesh. Vanitas found it interesting to see that this boy not only lived on his own, but he also had a monkey for a friend. It was a rather strange thing to think about. Though then it led him to another thought.

"Where are we going? I thought you said you didn't have a home."

"Not a traditional home like you would think. Not one with parents. Living on the streets for so many years I had to find some place to live, even if it wasn't much," Aladdin replied.

"Oh… okay," Vanitas whispered, still not quite understanding it.

"So can you tell me about your brother and sister? That way tomorrow I know who we are looking for."

Vanitas pursed his lips. This time he tried his hardest to keep his tears in. He couldn't keep crying each time he thought about them. He had to find them, that was it… though the lingering question of if they were even there in the same world floating around in his head.

"Their names… are Sora and Xion. They're twins but Sora kind of looks like me but with brown hair and blue eyes. Xion has black hair like me but it isn't spiky, and her eyes are blue like Sora's. But… I don't even know if they could be here…"

"What do you mean? If they aren't in Agrabah, where would they be? There aren't any close places for miles out here."

Vanitas stopped walking, causing Aladdin to stop and look back at the child. "Huh? What's wrong Vanitas?"

"I don't know where they are… and they must be scared. And it's all my fault!" Vanitas shouted the last part, surprisingly his sore and tired throat was able to manage it.

"Hey," Aladdin said as he got back down to Vanitas's eye level. "Let's not go blaming yourself, you don't know that is the case."

"Yeah I do! I fought with them and made Xion hate me! Sora probably hates me now too! It's because of me we are separated from each other!"

Aladdin reached out and placed his hands on Vanitas's shoulders. He may have just met his little kid, but he could see the loneliness and hurt in his eyes. At first it was only the familiar loneliness of being an orphan with no parents, but slowly he started to see that there was much more to it than that.

"Vanitas, it's okay. I am going to do whatever I can to help you, all right? I promise you that."

"You p-promise me?" Vanitas asked meekly.

He didn't like the idea of promises when it came from others. He could remember faint things from his parents… some of promises… but then all of that was a lie. All those promises they had told him never meant anything. Since then Vanitas made sure each promise he made to his siblings, was one that he could and would keep. Though now he had broken the biggest promise he had ever made to them.

" _Do they think I lied to them? Cause I broke the promise? What are they thinking right now… I bet they hate me…"_

"Of course I promise," Aladdin replied as honestly as he could.

Vanitas couldn't honestly decide if he thought Aladdin was being truthful or not, but one thing he did know was that he did like how kind and honest words sounded. Without saying anything Vanitas leaned forward and wrapped his arms around Aladdin as yet another wave of crying had hit him. He felt the warm embrace from Aladdin before the boy stood up, now carrying Vanitas.

Aladdin then started walking again, continuously thinking what this poor little child must have gone through. He knew he wasn't going to ask him, he would wait until Vanitas felt ready to talk about it. Until that time came Aladdin felt that he would do whatever he could to help this sad, little, orphaned boy.

* * *

Sora hit cold hard ground before he even knew it. Right away he jumped to his feet and started to look around and saw that he wasn't in Neverland anymore. Wherever this was, the ground was cold and stone and there were buildings all around him.

"Vani? Xion?" Sora asked quietly. "Wh-Where are you?"

Sora looked around, but he saw no sight of them. He turned to look up at the sky and saw it was nighttime. He whimpered as he tried to look around the area he had found himself in, but no matter where he looked he couldn't see them anywhere.

He then noticed he was holding something in the palm of his hand. He opened to see that it was the magic star, but only a part of it. He looked at it carefully and tried to see if he could find any of the other pieces nearby, but there was still no one out there but him.

Sora started to cry when he saw that he was alone. He was in some other world and his siblings were no were in sight. He had no idea what he was supposed to do now. He had never been alone before, Vanitas was always there to watch over him and protect him. Xion was always there for him too cause she was his twin, and twins were supposed to stick together. At least that was that Sora had thought.

Sora started to really let the tears stream down his face and he dropped to sit back down on the ground. He was too scared and sad to try and do anything, even though he didn't even know what to do.

Moments later he heard a voice speaking to him. "Hey um… are you all right?" It was a voice belonging to a male.

"Huh?" Sora asked as he looked around. He tried to find the source of the voice, but it was too dark to see anything that wasn't super close to him. "Who's there?"

"Just… someone," the voice answered. "What are you doing out here all alone?"

"I… I don't know. I was with Vani and Xion… then they were fighting. They were mad at each other and I didn't like it. I tried to stop them, but then the magic star broke and then I was here."

"Magic star?" the voice questioned. "And you don't know where your friends are?"

"They're my siblings!" Sora answered. "But… n-no… I don't know where they are. Where are you though?" Sora asked, becoming more curious than sad. He stood up and began to look around for where the voice could be coming from.

"Oh… you don't need to see me. I'm just here to talk to you," the voice answered quietly.

Sora squinted as he continued to walk around in circles, trying to find the source of the voice. Eventually his eyes fell to a large shadow that was above him standing on a section of the building that had a stature.

"Hey! There you are! You should come down so we can talk," Sora replied.

"O-Oh I don't need to do that. I think I'll just stay up here," the voice said trying to scoot himself back farther away from Sora.

"But you can help me right? You can help me find Vani and Xion? Please?" Sora asked.

There was a moment of hesitation before the person spoke up again. "I don't want you to be scared."

"Why would I be scared?" Sora asked as he tilted his head to the side.

"People usually are scared of me…"

"I won't be scared!" Sora replied. "I've seen pirates before and pirates are really scary, but I wasn't scared."

The person laughed at Sora's optimism and then a moment later he decided to jump down from his spot. Sora's eyes widened a little when the night sky gave a view to the person he had been talking to. He could see that this person was different from anyone else he had ever seen before, but it was still a person that he was looking at. Whoever this strange person was wearing a green outfit and had red unevenly cut red hair.

After a few seconds of staring confused, he smiled. "I don't think you are scary. I think you look really cool! I've never seen someone like you before. What's your name?"

"Quasimodo," the man answered.

"That's a cool name! My name is Sora," Sora replied. "You think you could help me?"

Quasimodo looked at this boy and thought deeply. It was the strangest thing to see a child smile and talk to him like he was normal. This little boy said he wasn't scared of him, and that he thought he was cool. That was something he had never heard before. Esmeralda had already been nice and kind to him, looking past his appearance, but he hadn't expected anyone else to be that nice.

"I… I can try," Quasimodo said, truly feeling the want to help this little boy.

Though he wasn't exactly sure what to do. The boy had said something about magic, which was thought to be bad and used by gypsies. And this boy was wearing quiet the strange outfit, but Quasimodo had already learned from Esmeralda that her people were not bad. So even if this boy was one, he couldn't assume to harashly on him.

It was already late though and going to search through the town for his two siblings would be far too hard. He knew that he couldn't let any of the guards see him either, so he had the only thought that he could for the time. "You can come with me. I can try to help you out tomorrow, but it is too late now."

"Ooh, yeah, it is nighttime," Sora said and then as if on cue he let out a yawn. "Where we going to go?"

Quasimodo held out his hand to the child. "We are going to go where I live, in the bell tower."

"Bell… tower?" Sora asked as he looked up. "Whoa, this is a big building. How we going to get up there?"

"We're going to have to climb it," Quasimodo answered. Under a normal night he would have brought Sora to the front of the cathedral, but with what happened earlier that day, it was out of the question. The only way to go was the way he took Esmeralda to escape, by sneaking out the building.

"That sounds really fun," Sora said as he took Quasimodo's hand and then was hoisted up on to his back.

"Okay, just hold on then," Quasimodo said as he jumped back up to the building to begin his climb.

Sora held tight as Quasimodo maneuvered his way up the building. He breathed in with a sigh of relief that he had found someone nice enough to help him. Though he still worried deeply about where Vanitas and Xion were, he knew he would be able to find them again. Now with a new friend he was sure he could find a way to find them, but then he remembered the star he now had back in his pocket.

The magic star was broken and Sora wasn't too sure if he could still work when broken. He knew when he broke a toy, he couldn't make it work like it use to. So he wondered if that would be the same for the star. He figured he would have to try it for later, but for now he was getting tired and stared to close his eyes. After everything that had happened today, he needed a good bit of rest.

* * *

When the star cracked and made a bright flash of light, it was brighter than anything Xion had seen. She shut his eyes as tight as she could as she felt something strong push her back. He cried out as she fell to the ground trying to hold on to her moogle plus and the star as hard as she could.

Slowly opened her eyes, she could tell she was someplace else. These trees were not like the trees on Neverland. There were far more of them and they looked much more tropical… almost like on Destiny Islands. Not exactly like there, but there was a sense of familiarity.

"Vani? Where are we?" Xion asked as she brought the moogle plush close to her chest.

She waited, but she didn't hear any response. Now she started too around the tropical forest area, trying to locate her brothers. "Vani? Sora?"

She didn't see them anywhere though and her little heart began to beat faster. "V-Vani?! Where are you! Sora! Where you guys go?"

A second later she remembered the magic star. She looked down at it and let out a gasp, in her hand was only a part of the star. "It… it broke? Why did it break?"

She held it close to her chest and closed her eyes. "Please, take me to Vani and Sora. I can't find them."

She waited, but nothing happened. The fraction of the star just stayed the same and did not glow. Tears swelled up in her eyes as she kept trying to think about the star taking her to her brothers, but still nothing ever happened.

"Why is it broken?!" Xion shouted before the tears flowed down her face. "I'm sorry Vani. I'm sorry… I don't hate you…"

Xion wiped her tears as she decided to place the star fraction in her dress pocket. There she saw that there was still there the picture that Vanitas let her hold on to. She took it out and looked at it, seeing the happy moment from long ago. Bringing the picture close to her chest she cried again.

"Vani… Sora…" Xion sobbed hard as she clutched the picture as tightly as she could. "Gotta find you guys…"

After a moment she placed the picture back in her dress pocket and began to look around. " _Maybe if I can find adults… adults know what to do. They can help me…"_

Xion wandered a bit, trying to find where she could go. Though it was late out and the sky was already pretty dark, so she held her moogle tightly, which did give her some strength to keep going. She kept walking until she came to a pathway. Looking up it she saw that it led to a nice little house at the top of the hill.

Quickly she ran up the hill and up the stairs to the front door of the house. She began knocking on the door and then waited. " _Please let someone help me…"_ Xion thought to herself.

A second later the door opened and a young woman with long black hair was standing there. "Hello? Oh," she turned down to see Xion. She kneeled down to Xion's height and looked at her. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"I… I'm lost…" Xion whispered, giving her moogle plush a squeeze. "I can't find my brothers and it's dark out and I don't know where to go and… and…"

Xion began to cry again thinking about how she was now separated from her brothers she loved dearly. Now she wasn't sure if she would ever see them again. She wasn't too sure why the star broke or what that meant, but she had a feeling that Sora and Vanitas were somewhere else.

"Hey hey," the woman said gently. "Don't cry, it's okay. Can you tell me your name at least?"

"Xion."

"It's nice to meet you Xion, my name is Nani."

"And I'm Lilo," a new voice said.

Xion looked behind Nani to see that a little girl was standing there, she was wearing a green nightgown and also had long black hair like Nani.

"Lilo I thought you were-"

"I already finished with that, but then I heard someone knock at the door," Lilo said as she took some steps closer to Xion. "Are you lost then? Cause you can't find your siblings?"

Xion nodded her head quickly. "We… we were fighting and then… we…" Xion couldn't finish her sentence for the pain in her heart grew and she began to sob.

"If you are lost you can stay here!" Lilo exclaimed. "We can help you."

"Lilo," Nani said in a warning tone. "We can't just take in some girl off the street. We should call someone to pick her up. Xion, do you know your parents phone number?"

Xion shook her head. "I don't got any parents! It was only me, Vani and Sora." Xion then pulled out the picture and showed it to Nani and Lilo. "Vani has been watching out for Sora and me, but then we fought… and now I can't find them."

"See Nani? She needs our help!" Lilo said. "She can stay here until we find her brothers."

"Lilo, I just don't think-"

"Please Nani, I promise I'll be good. Please?"

"Yeah," Xion added, her eyes growing wide and pleading. "Please? I don't wanna go back outside where it is all dark again."

Nani looked at the two little girls, both giving pleading looks. Though she knew that she would have to probably call someone eventually, she didn't want to upset this little girl anymore than she already was. Nani could see that in a way Xion's situation was like how she was with Lilo. None of them had parents and the older sibling was looking out for the younger.

"Okay, she can stay here a couple days, okay? Just until we can find her brothers or figure out something else."

"Yay!" Lilo cheered. "It will be like having another sister."

"Ooh, you two are sisters?" Xion asked.

"Uh-huh," Lilo replied. "Now come on, you can sleep with me in my room."

"Okay!" Xion said as the two of them ran towards the stairs leading up to the second floor.

Xion was still scared and worried where Vanitas and Sora were. She couldn't get the thoughts out of her head if they were okay or something else. What she was glad for though was that she found people that could help. Friendly nice people that she felt could be good friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally the big split chapter. Hope you all enjoyed!


	11. Chapter 11

Xion followed Lilo into her room and once they were there, she stared at it in amazement. There had been plenty of toys and books in the orphanages, but this seemed like much more. So many more toys and different kinds too.

"You like my room?" Lilo asked.

"Yeah. It's nice and big, and you get it all to yourself, right?"

"Yup! But now we get to share!" Lilo replied excitedly before going to climb up onto her bed. "Come feel how soft the bed is. I'm sure you will like it."

Xion followed after her and sat down once she was up on the bed. "So soft!" She giggled before flopping onto her back. "This is really soft!"

"I think you are going to have a lot of fun here Xion!" Lilo said. "Oh! I forgot to ask, who's your friend?" Lilo pointed to the moogle that Xion was still holding on to.

"This is Kupo!" Xion said, sitting back up. "He's a moogle and he likes having tea parties with me."

"A moogle? I never heard of anything like that before. But I have my own doll too." Lilo displayed a little funny looking green doll. "Her name is Scrump, but her head is a little too big…" Liloe trailed off, gently brushing her doll's head.

"I think she is very pretty," Xion commented.

"You do? You don't think she is weird?"

"No. I think she looks really cool. I don't think her head is too big. Kupo has a big head, see?"

Lilo smiled, happy that Xion wasn't afraid or freaked out by Scrump. "Yeah you're right. Did you make him yourself? I made Scrump?"

Xion's eyes widened. "You made her? Like all arts and crafty made her?"

"Yup! I mean Nani helped me a little, but I came up with her looks all by myself. What about Kupo?"

"Vani won him for me. We went to a fun fair and…" Xion frowned once her thoughts fell back to the memories. A memory of a happier time before all the crazy stuff happened.

"You miss him a lot don't you?"

"Mhmm…" Xion hummed before giving her moogle a squish. She then pulled out the picture again and looked at it. "Vani always looked after me and Sora."

Lilo, who hadn't gotten a good look at the picture before, staring at it now with curious eyes. She couldn't help but ask what was on her mind. "Your parents aren't in the picture?"

Xion shook her head. "No… Sora and I don't remember them… Vani does. But he doesn't like to talk about them. He… He said they left us. I don't understand… He was angry about it and yelled."

Xion started to have the tears form in her eyes again. She hadn't cried this much in a long while, but this hurt so much more. It was way more painful then when she fell and scraped her knee or bumped her head on the table. This was a pain she had never felt before and it scared her a bit.

Why did it have to hurt her so much? Why did it make her feel so sad? " _If Vani were here… he would know. He always knows stuff…"_

Suddenly Lilo's arms were around Xion. It was comforting just like Vanitas's hugs. "Sometimes the big brother or sister does that. They yell and stuff. But they know what they are doing. Nani and I fight a lot, but she just wants to do what's best. She still cares for me. I'm sure your brother cares about you still."

"Thank you," Xion replied softly.

"You're welcome. Now that you are here, I get the chance to be the big sister," Lilo said with a smile. "We're going to have a lot of fun together!"

"Yay! I can't wait. But then we can find Vani and Sora, right?"

Lilo nodded. "Yeah! I wanna help you find them. And Nani does too. But…" Lilo let out a yawn. "I guess we gotta sleep for right now. We can play and talk more in the morning, okay?"

"Okay," Xion said before she yawned for herself before placing the picture on the dresser next to the bed. The last thing she wanted was to get the picture crumpled from sleeping on it.

The two of them snuggled up in Lilo's large bed and quickly fell asleep. A few minutes later Nani slowly opened the door and peeked inside. She saw the two little girls fast sleep, both of them holding on to their special dolls. Nani sighed a little before smiling. She knew that it was not the best time for a little girl like Xion to be showing up on their door, but she didn't want to leave her or have someone take her away. Just like Lilo, she wanted to help this little girl with finding her brothers. She only hoped they weren't too far.

Her eyes then glanced over to the dresser where Xion's picture was. Nani looked at it from where she stood but didn't open the door any further, not wanting to wake up the girls by accident. Aside from her brothers having oddly spiky hair, they all looked perfectly normal. Though seeing the picture made her think of what Xion had said again. She had said she didn't have any parents, and that meant that Xion was an orphan along with her brothers. With that it made many more questions in Nani's head that she knew she would have to keep track of to ask for later.

* * *

Sora had clung to Quasimodo as he climbed back up the building. He was slowly falling asleep, but he woke up quickly and went back to holding on tightly. Though when Quasimodo got to the top of the building, someone was already there and tried to help him up into the roof.

"Hi there," the man said. "I'm looking for the gypsy girl. Have you seen her?"

Quasimodo jumped up onto the roof and reached up to set Sora down. "Stay here. I'll deal with him."

He started marching toward the man who was backing up towards a doorway. Soar didn't understand what was happening, but he did as he was told and waited. Eventually Quasimodo came back, looking a little more sad this time.

"Hi!" Sora said once he was back. "You doing okay?"

Quasimodo nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Now come on, follow me."

Quasimodo started walking across the pathway that led to another section of the building. Sora walked alongside him, looking up at him curiously. "What was your name again? I mean I remember what you said, but I can't remember how to say it. It's really really long."

"O-Oh. Um well my… my friends call me Quasi."

"Ooh! That's like how I call my brother Vanitas, Vani! I can remember that Quasi," Sora said before smiling widely.

Quasimodo found himself smiling at the little boy. It was still strange to have befriended such a small child especially one who didn't seem afraid of him. But he still wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to do with the little child following him around. He only knew that he didn't want to leave the poor kid out on his own with no place to go.

Though there was one thing he hadn't thought of yet. How to explain this to friends. They came out right away first to congratulate him for how he dealt with the guard that was looking for Esmerelda.

But once they calmed down they seemed to notice Sora, who was hiding behind Quasimodo. Now that they were back in the bell town that also doubled as Quasimodo's room Hugo stepped forward to ask the question.

"So who's the kid?" Hugo asked.

"Oh, this is Sora. He was lost outside Notre Dame. I thought he could stay here until he finds his siblings."

"Aw the poor little guy," Laverne said as she placed her hands over her chest. She then hopped closer to Sora. "You don't gotta be afraid. We're friends of Quasi."

"Ooh, okay! What are your names?"

Laverne, who was the kindest of the three, smiled. "Well I'm Larvene. The tall one's Victor and the short one's Hugo."

Sora smiled at each of them and waved. "Nice to meet you!" Sora then took the moment to look where they were. "Whoa! What is this place? It's so tall!"

"This is the bell tower where I live," Quasimodo answered as he climbed the ladder that led to the area that took him up to the second level where his little work table was.

"Wow! You live here with all those really really big bells? That's so cool! Can I get to hear them? Are they really loud?"

Quasimodo stumbled for his words, not knowing how he should respond. He had never dealt with a child since he had grown up alone in the bell tower. But he didn't think it was a bad thing. Sora was just really curious and not afraid in the slightest. Though Quasimodo wasn't too sure what he would do if Frollo came along and saw the child, he figured he would have time to think it over. For now he had to find a way to answer all of Sora's questions that kept on seeming to grow.

* * *

Aladdin had made it back to his little place he called home. By that point Vanitas had stopped crying, but there were still some sniffles and small little sounds coming from him. Now in his home, Aladdin set Vanitas down on the pillows that he used for his bed.

"Hey, so are you feeling all right?"

Vanitas frowned and shook his head. "No…"

"Would you like to talk about it?" Aladdin asked as he sat next to Vanitas.

Vanitas shook his head again. "No… I don't wanna." A moment later Vanitas looked around. "This is where you live?"

"Yeah, it is. I know it isn't much, but it's the best that a street rat like me can do."

"Streetrat?"

"Ah, I mean an orphan," Aladdin said, seeing as it was better to use the nicer word around the little kid. "But, it may seem like not a lot, but it has a great view."

Aladdin pulled back the cloth that acted as a curtain for his 'window' and once he did he saw Vanitas's eyes widened. "Whoa… what's that place?"

Aladdin looked a little suspiciously at Vanitas, but chose to answer him instead. "That's the palace. Pretty great view, right? It's my dream to live in a palace like that one day."

"But why?"

"Cause then I could just relax and not have any problems with living on the street."

Vanitas tilted his head at Aladdin, not too sure what to make of what he was saying. " _I thought he was fine living on his own as an orphan. He said he'd been doing it for years. Why would he want to live in a palace like that? I don't get it…"_

"Oh… okay." Vanitas sighed after that and placed his hands into his pockets. Slowly his hand wrapped around the star fragment. The tears came to him again quickly and he tried to wipe them away before Aladdin could notice.

But of course he seemed to catch on to it quickly. He placed an arm around Vanitas and gave him a small hug. "Are you sure you don't want to talk about it? Maybe would you like to tell me more about your siblings?"

"I guess…"

"I know it is probably hard, but if you tell me what happened, maybe we can get a good idea where to look for them."

"But I don't think they are even here…"

"I don't know what you mean by that. Agrabah is in the desert. The next closest place is still many miles away. Can you tell me what happened that got you seperated in the first place?"

Vanitas sighed. He wasn't too sure if he could really trust Aladdin still. He barely knew him and the pain from the fight he had with Xion still ranged deeply in his heart. Reaching inside his pocket again he held the star shard. He breathed in deeply before letting go of it and shaking his head.

"No… not now. Hurts too much."

"I guess you must have really been through something, huh?"

Vanitas nodded while he realized that Aladdin was still giving him a hug. Quickly he pushed away and tried to give himself some space away. He did feel a bit thankful that Aladdin said he would help, but Vanitas was still not fond of such close comforts from others. He still liked his own space and personal bubble.

"Okay, hmm how about you try and get some sleep? Tomorrow we can talk if you are feeling ready."

Vanitas wanted to protest. He could sleep whenever he felt like it, but as if on cue he stared to yawn. He knew that he would need to sleep eventually so he slowly laid down on the pillows and closed his eyes. He didn't even bother with a 'thank you' or 'goodnight' to Aladdin. It wasn't like he really cared about that stuff anyways. All he could think about was Sora and Xion… and where they could be.

As Vanitas drifted off, Aladdin placed a small blanket over the boy. He sighed, as he looked pensively at the young child. Soft screeches from Abu made him turn his direction over to him. His little monkey friend was looking a little cross and then screeching once more before pointing to Vanitas.

"Yeah I know he is a bit strange, Abu," Aladdin whispered softly once he saw that Vanitas was fast asleep. "But… I couldn't just leave him alone out there. I could see how scared and alone he was. Whatever it was that he went through really must have hurt him. I just want to try and help him out."

Another quiet couple of screeches came from Abu after that.

"I hope so too. I'd like for him to find his siblings," Aladdin said as he looked over that Vanitas, who was sleeping quietly. "Poor kid though, I can't even imagine what it was that he must have gone through. I just hope I'll be able to help him."


End file.
